


Kindred

by pterawaters



Series: Mr. Sandman [15]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: All the Byers Have Powers, Babysitting, Background Demogorgon (Stranger Things), Established Relationship, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, Internalized Homophobia, Jonathan Byers Has Powers, Multi, Name Changes, Pets, Polyamory, Pride Parades, Returning Home, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:27:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23082481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Steve takes a big step forward in his relationship with Jonathan: changing his last name to Byers. Then, Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy agree to look after eight-year-old Jenny Byers for two weeks, and find out that babysitting a telepathic pre-teen comes with surprises even they couldn't expect.
Relationships: Byers Family & Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Mr. Sandman [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1527764
Comments: 36
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you've been reading this series from the beginning, welcome back!
> 
> If you're new to this series, I would definitely recommend reading from at least [Sleepwalker](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21583837) on to be able to enjoy this story.

“Are you nervous about next Tuesday?” Robin asked, taking another piece of pizza out of the box. 

Steve sighed and admitted, “Yeah. What am I gonna do if the judge says no?”

"Why would he say no?" 

Shrugging, Steve told her, "I don't know. If he finds out I’m basically doing this because I want to be married to Jonathan, that might be an issue.”

Robin scoffed. “How would he find out? It’s not like you go around wearing a big old ‘bisexual’ sign around your neck.”

“Yeah, but some people know. What if one of them shows up at the hearing? What if _my dad_ shows up? He knows about me and Jonathan.”

Shifting over on the couch, Robin put her arms around Steve. “Do you really think he’d even know to show up? You think he scours the announcements section of the Tribune?”

“Probably not,” Steve admitted.

“Okay.” Robin took Steve’s hand and squeezed it. “When the judge asks why you want to change your name, what are you going to say?”

Steve took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He could do this. “I want to change my name, because after I left my father’s house, my best friend’s family took me in. They’ve been more of a family to me than my birth family ever was, and I want to honor their kindness and love by using their name as my own.”

“Wow,” Robin said, giving Steve a curious look. “That’s, like, _really_ good.”

“Nancy helped me with it,” Steve told her, getting a nod of understanding in return.

“It’s gonna work,” Robin assured him. “You’ll be Steve Byers by this time next week!”

“Yeah, God willing,” Steve said with a heavy sigh. “Did I tell you Jenny’s going to stay with us for a couple weeks?”

“No, you didn’t,” Robin said. “Summer vacation?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, her last week of school is this week, but I guess Hopper and Mom are both, like, eyeballs deep in this one case they’re working.”

“What about Will and El? Can’t one of them watch her?”

“I guess they got jobs together at some bookstore?” Steve told her. “Jonathan says they’re starting to save up for college.”

“Aww, that reminds me of when we worked together that one summer.” Robin grinned. “You’re still waiting tables, right?”

After a brief nod, Steve admitted, "Not for much longer. I got the first check from my trust fund."

“Eugh, trust fund!” Robin mimed gagging. “You’re such a cliché. What, now you’re not going to work at all?”

“I didn’t say that,” Steve said, laughing at Robin’s antics. “After Jenny goes back to Springfield, I’m set to start volunteering at this place for homeless kids.”

Robin stopped short. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, laughing again at her surprise. “Did you know that a lot of the time the reason kids end up homeless and on their own is because they’ve been kicked out by their parents for being queer?”

“I didn’t, but that makes a lot of sense,” Robin said, frowning a little. “What kind of work are you doing?”

“Like, running activities and stuff. Helping out. I’m not exactly sure, but my academic adviser suggested it. You know, as good practice for running a classroom.” Steve smiled. “I figured I could afford to help, and if it’s good for my career too, all the better, right?”

“Right,” Robin said, a soft smile spreading across her face. “I take back my cliché comment. That’s really cool of you, Steve.”

“Thanks,” he said, looking up when the apartment door opened. 

“Hey,” said Nancy, closing the door behind her. “Did you guys leave any for me?”

“There’s plenty left,” Robin told her, flipping open the pizza box on the coffee table as Nancy set down her things and joined them on the couch. 

Giving Nancy a kiss hello, Steve asked, “How was your first day?”

“Good,” Nancy replied. “I think I was able to wow the reporters at the Tribune with my fact-checking speed.” She leaned forward and took a piece of pizza out of the box. 

“Are they still going to give you Tuesday off?” Steve asked, putting his face in the crook of Nancy’s neck and wrapping his arms around her, holding her close.

“Yes, don’t worry,” Nancy told him, eating around him. “I’ll be there.”

After the pizza was gone and the movie was done, Steve followed Robin to the door and asked her, "You sure you don't want me to walk you home?"

"Or you could stay," Nancy offered, coming to stand with them at the door. "In Charlie's old room. You know, if you didn't want to be alone in your apartment tonight."

Robin scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine, but I'm getting the impression you guys won't be. You really miss Jonathan that much? He'll be back the day after tomorrow. In a couple hours, they're flying back to D.C from wherever Owens sent them."

"Yeah, we know," Steve said, wrapping his arms around Nancy. "If you're not going to stay, will you at least call when you get home safe?"

"Yes, _mother_ ," Robin said, rolling her eyes but giving Steve and Nancy both a hug. "Talk to you soon!"

Steve watched her bounce down the stairs and out of sight before closing the door. Turning to Nancy, he said, "I guess this is our life now. Waiting for Jonathan to come home."

"Maybe it'll get easier," Nancy suggested. "After all, this is only the first mission Owens sent him and Charlie on. Maybe we'll get used to it."

"Doubt it," Steve told her, pouting, but letting Nancy pull him by the hand into their bedroom. After he got ready, Steve got into bed and waited for Nancy to join him. Just like it had every night that week, the bed felt too big with just Steve and Nancy in it. When he curled up behind her and kissed her neck, he asked, "How do normal people sleep like this? Just two people in the bed?"

Nancy laughed, but the phone rang before she could say anything. She reached over toward the nightstand, which was a little too far away, and knocked the phone off the hook. "Shit, let go," she said, and Steve had to pull his arms from around her as she scooted over to the side of the bed and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

Steve almost asked her if it was Robin, but the change in Nancy's voice when she said, "Hi," told him what he needed to know.

"Hey, let me hear," Steve said, crowding against Nancy and angling his head close when Nancy cradled the phone between the two of them. "Hi, Jonathan!"

"Hi, baby," Jonathan said with a little laugh. "How are you guys?"

"We miss you," Nancy said, an adorable pout on her face. 

Steve tucked her hair back for her and added, "The bed is too big without you here."

"At least you've got each other," he said. "I've been spending nights in a bed _all by myself_. It's horrible. I feel like I'm drowning in blankets."

Steve laughed, while Nancy asked, "Are you on your way back to the states?"

"In a couple hours, yeah," he told them. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

Steve assured him, "We were still awake. Robin just left after a movie night."

"Oh, Nance. Was today your first day?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah, it was," she said, obviously pleased that Jonathan had remembered. Steve held the phone for her while she told Jonathan all about it, watching the way she moved her hands and her face, and just… loving her. Missing him.

As Jonathan told them he had to wrap up the call, because people were expecting him, Steve said, "We love you, Jonathan. Be safe."

"Love you, too," he said, and his voice sounded like he was smiling. "I'll see you soon."

After they hung up, Nancy sighed and said, "It's not soon enough."

"No, it's really not," Steve replied, pulling her close again. He had trouble falling asleep until he gave up and tucked Jonathan's pillow behind his back. Just that little bit of pressure helped ease the lonely feeling and he managed to drift off.

~*~

It was late when the plane landed at O'Hare, though Jonathan's screwed-up body clock insisted it was almost morning. When Charlie yawned beside him, Jonathan didn't even try to prevent himself from yawning in turn. As the plane pulled up to the gate, Charlie said, "They're waiting for us."

"They said they would be," Jonathan replied before he realized Charlie wasn't asking him a question. She was telling him. As he reached out, he felt Nancy, Steve, and Robin all waiting for them at the gate. "I mean, yeah. They are."

Charlie snorted a little laugh at him, so when he took her bag from the overhead compartment, he dropped it in her lap instead of handing it to her. She laughed again. "Are you always this bitchy when traveling?"

"Only when it separates me from Steve and Nancy," he told her, lifting down his own bag. "How come you're _less_ bitchy while traveling?"

Charlie shrugged. "Maybe 'cause I thought I'd be stuck in my hometown forever. Having this shield has totally changed my life."

"Shit, _that's_ what's wrong," Jonathan told her, closing his eyes. He reset his wobbly shield, taking a little bit of strength for it when Charlie grabbed his hand and offered.

 _Thanks_ , he told her.

She replied, _You're welcome_ , and then it was their turn to walk down the aisle of the plane and up to the gate.

Jonathan was already zeroed in on Nancy and Steve before he could see them. Still, it was nice that Nancy called out to him as he approached. "Jonathan!"

Jonathan greeted Nancy lips first, dropping his bag and wrapping his arms around her as they kissed. The only reason he let Nancy go after a few seconds rather than hanging on for longer was so he could hug Steve too. He wanted to kiss Steve hello as well, but there were people around. Then he realized he didn't care. He'd been away for over a week and he could kiss his fiancé if he wanted to. Still, he made it a quick kiss, just a press of his lips against Steve's, before he said, "Hi."

"Hi," Steve replied with a wide, pleased grin that felt like love. "We missed you."

"I missed you guys, too," Jonathan told them, letting Nancy hug him a second time. Steve picked up Jonathan's bag and put it over his shoulder. "Anything big happen while I was gone?"

"No," Nancy said, keeping Jonathan's arm around her shoulders by holding onto his hand. The three of them kept close together as they walked away from the gate, Charlie and Robin a few yards ahead of them, heads bent together as they walked. "The Springfield Byerses are still planning on driving up tomorrow."

"Good," Jonathan replied. "Did they decide how long they're going to leave Jenny with us?"

"Just two weeks," Steve said, walking close enough that his arm brushed against Jonathan's shoulder with every step.

"I'm glad El and Will are going to be able to stay for your hearing on Tuesday." Feeling too clingy to be circumspect, Jonathan put his hand in Steve's, lacing their fingers together.

"Yeah," Steve said, squeezing Jonathan's hand. "Mike and Dustin are coming, too. Here's hoping we actually have something to celebrate afterward."

"We will," Jonathan insisted, squeezing Steve's hand once more before making himself let go. 

Out in the parking structure, they all piled into Robin's car, Jonathan in the back between Nancy and Steve. As they pulled out onto the road leading north, Robin asked, "So, how did it go? The trip?”

"Classified," Charlie replied, "but fine."

"Boring most of the time," Jonathan added.

"Can you tell us where you went?" Nancy asked, her hand on his knee. "Just, in general?"

"Europe," Jonathan said. "But other than that, no. Which is stupid, because they _know_ my little sister picks up memories all the time without meaning to."

"Was it hard?" Steve asked, his fingers laced with Jonathan's again, his palm nice and warm. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I’m fine," Jonathan told him. "It wasn’t hard at all, just an information grab. Charlie got us in and out like a flash."

"Ooh, would that be your superhero name?" Robin asked from the driver's seat. "The Flash?"

"The Flash is already a superhero," Steve said. "Runs real fast."

"Yeah, in a _comic_ book," Robin argued back. "I'm talking real-world superhero names here."

"I don't think those exist," Jonathan said. "And if they did, El should get one first. She's the one who started all this."

"I wonder if any of those comic book stories were ever based off anyone real," Nancy said. "Like people the authors knew."

"Planning on exploiting us for your writing career?" Charlie asked her, turning in her seat to grin at Nancy. "Can you imagine how pissed off Owens would be if you managed to publish something?"

Nancy laughed, and Jonathan realized how much he'd missed that sound while he'd been away.

Robin and Charlie dropped them off at home and Jonathan could tell he wasn't the only one eager to get into the apartment. Nancy practically dragged him up the stairs by the hand and Steve crowded him from behind, carrying his bag for him. While Nancy unlocked the door, Steve turned Jonathan around and kissed him soundly against the hallway wall. It was so much better than the kiss they'd shared at the airport, Jonathan could hardly breathe.

As Nancy pulled Jonathan into the apartment, he took a deep breath, appreciating how much it smelled like _them_ and like _home_. Steve locked the door behind them as Nancy unzipped Jonathan's sweatshirt and pushed it off his shoulders.

Jonathan grabbed Nancy close and kissed her, pulling off her shirt as they walked through the living room and past the kitchen into their bedroom. Steve's hands unbuttoned Jonathan's jeans and pushed them down. With a laugh, Jonathan had to grab both Nancy and Steve to steady himself and avoid tripping as Steve got them off his legs. 

Jonathan turned toward Steve and asked, "Did you guys miss me as much as I missed you?"

"More," Steve insisted, bracketing Jonathan's face with his hands and kissing him deeply. Jonathan pulled Steve's shirt off before kissing him again, running his hands over Steve's bare skin.

"It had to have been more," Nancy agreed, holding Jonathan's hand and pressing a kiss to his palm. "We barely slept without you here."

"Really?" Jonathan asked, thinking about the hotel rooms he and Charlie had shared during the trip. Some of the days they'd used their abilities so much that sleep came easily. Others, Jonathan found he only really slept when Charlie was awake, and vice versa. "Did you have to sleep with the light on, like back in high school?"

"Not quite," Nancy told him, scratching her fingers through the fuzzy hair on his jaw – he hadn't bothered to shave at all during the trip. "I'm kind of digging this look on you."

"Yeah?" Jonathan asked with a laugh, following Nancy onto the bed. He turned and asked Steve, "What do you think, baby?"

"It does look good," Steve said, stripping the rest of the way down before getting into bed. He kissed Jonathan's jaw before saying, "The feel is going to take some getting used to."

Jonathan laughed, pulling Steve closer and kissing him again. Nancy pressed close against Jonathan's side, her hand on his chest, kissing and sucking on his neck. Then she asked, "Do you want to be in the middle tonight?"

Groaning at the thought, Jonathan broke away from kissing Steve to admit, "I don't think I can. Not comfortably, anyway. Between the weird food and the jet lag."

"Gotcha," Steve told him, though Jonathan could tell Nancy didn't quite understand. Pushing his hands up Jonathan's chest, Steve asked, "How 'bout I ride you?"

Nodding eagerly, Jonathan grabbed Steve's hips and pulled him closer. "That would be good. What about Nance?"

"Not sure," Steve said, kissing Nancy. “What do you want?”

“Jesus, what _don’t_ I want?” Nancy said with a laugh. She smiled at Jonathan and pushed his hair back off his forehead. 

He sighed at the way her touch made him feel so loved. He couldn’t help but grab Nancy’s hand and pull on her arm, tugging her close enough to kiss. When he licked into her mouth, she moaned a little bit, wanting him so much Jonathan could barely stand it. Putting his hands on Nancy’s hips, he tugged at her until she was straddling his chest, just in front of Steve. 

Jonathan had to tilt his head up a bit to keep kissing her, but it was easy to reach her pussy with his fingers. She was wet already, almost dripping on him as he got his fingers slicked up and gently stroked her clit. She made a devastatingly pleased noise, so Jonathan broke away from kissing her and asked, “Do you want to come on Steve’s cock while I’m kissing you? While I’m touching you?”

“Yes,” she whispered back, groaning when he stroked her again. She looked over her shoulder and sat up far enough to kiss Steve, grinding down on where Jonathan’s fingers were now trapped between her body and his. “Baby,” Nancy murmured. “I need you in me.” Jonathan could feel how sharp her need was, how much she ached for it.

Steve took a quick breath and nodded. “Yeah. Shit, yeah,” he said, kissing her again before nudging her back down toward Jonathan. 

Nancy took the suggestion and ran with it, attacking Jonathan with her mouth, nipping at his lips and sucking on his tongue. Jonathan could feel it when Steve slipped into her, both of them moaning. He sped up his fingers on Nancy’s clit, making her whisper against his lips, “Oh! Oh, shit! God! Jona–athan!”

Steve didn’t speed up the way Jonathan expected him to, but he _was_ also at a strange angle, trying to thrust with his knees on either side of Jonathan’s hips. Jonathan couldn’t help but put his left hand around Steve’s wrist, just to have one solid point of contact with him. 

Then Steve leaned forward, planting that hand on the bed next to Jonathan’s shoulder. With his other hand, he brushed Nancy’s hair away from her neck and leaned closer still, kissing and then sucking at Nancy’s neck. 

“You giving Nance a hickey, baby?” Jonathan asked. “How’s that gonna look when she goes back to her internship on Monday?”

Nancy muttered, “Nngh. Harder, baby. Come on!”

Jonathan could tell she was getting close, so he redoubled his efforts. Except his cock ached with no one touching it, so he got his feet planted on the mattress and tilted up his hips until he could grind against Steve’s inner thigh. 

“Fuck...” Steve groaned in a low voice against Nancy’s neck. Then he straightened up and roughly pulled Nancy back onto him a few more times until she was coming, shuddering in Jonathan’s arms and crying out.

She had just barely started coming down from her orgasm when Steve pulled out and scrambled away to the nightstand, grabbing the lube before he came back. “Jon, babe, can I?”

“God, please,” Jonathan told him with a whine and a nod. 

Steve slicked him up quickly before sinking down on his cock, tight and hot in contrast to the cool lube. It took a minute to work his way all the way down, muttering, “You feel so good. So good inside me.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan agreed, using one arm to keep Nancy close on his chest, and using the other to hold Steve’s hand. “You’re so hot, fucking yourself on my dick like this. I missed you so much, baby.”

Nancy slipped off Jonathan’s chest, but she stayed close against his side, scratching her fingernails over one of Jonathan’s nipples and kissing his neck. Jonathan reached down and closed his hand around Steve’s cock. It wasn’t slick enough, but Jonathan was able to get enough of a stroke going that Steve cried out, his rhythm faltering. 

“I need…” Steve said, breathless, before leaning toward the opposite side of the bed from Nancy and rolling Jonathan with him. Now beneath Jonathan, Steve pulled him close, whining as Jonathan drove into him hard and fast, “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck!”

Steve came against Jonathan’s belly, clenching down on his cock and crying out. Jonathan let himself go, feeling Steve’s orgasm with him and Nancy’s love as she kissed Jonathan’s jaw and rubbed her hand across his back, soothing him as he breathed through the pleasure so intense it _almost_ hurt.

“Oh!” Steve sighed, laughing a little. “Oh, fuck!”

Smiling, Jonathan pulled out of him carefully and asked, “You okay?”

Eyes already slipping closed, Steve said a sleepy, “Mm-hm,” and gave him a thumbs up.

Jonathan laughed and turned his attention back to Nancy, kissing her and holding her close as they settled down against the pillows. It was a little warm in their room, the air conditioner they’d bought a few weeks previous set up, but not turned on at the moment. Maybe it was exactly the right temperature for sleeping naked, with just the sheet Nancy was pulling up over them. 

After she turned off the bedside lamp, Nancy settled against Jonathan again, whispering, “I love you.”

“Love you too, Nancy,” Jonathan told her, hoping like hell he wouldn’t have to leave again anytime soon. “So, so much.” 

On Jonathan’s other side, Steve rolled in closer, putting his hand on Jonathan's hip and his forehead against the back of Jonathan's neck. A few seconds later, Steve started snoring softly, so Jonathan closed his eyes and followed him into sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Wearing a new suit, bought specifically for the occasion, Steve stood at the courthouse steps and looked up at the building. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Beside him, Nancy squeezed his hand and Jonathan put a hand on his shoulder. Charlie, Robin, Joyce, Hopper, Jenny, El, and Will all stood behind him. 

He caught sight of a few more familiar faces at the top of the stairs. Mike and Dustin he'd been expecting, but Lucas and Max were there too. Dustin saw Steve and waved. And–

And Steve's mother was there, too, chatting with Max and wearing a sophisticated black and white skirt suit. He'd mentioned the court date to her when they'd spoken on the phone, but he hadn't really thought she'd come. After all, he was giving up the name he'd shared with her for the first nineteen years of his life. Two years previously she'd changed her name back to her maiden name, Roderick, after the divorce. And she hadn't tried to talk Steve out of changing his name, but she hadn't said she was going to be there _that day_. 

Steve climbed the courthouse steps, greeting his friends and then letting Harriet pull him into a hug. "You're here," he said dumbly.

"Of course I'm here," she replied, taking a moment to hug Nancy, then Jonathan, placing kisses on their cheeks. "It's not every day that my son takes important steps in his life. I've missed too many of them. I'm not going to miss this one, too."

"Thank you, Mom. Thanks," he said, hugging her again and trying not to cry.

"We should go in," Robin said gently from behind him.

Steve nodded, and grabbed Nancy's hand again, needing the support. Robin got them all to the right part of the courthouse, and to the clerk checking people in. Steve gave her his paperwork, which she looked over for a second before nodding. Then she looked past Steve and asked, "Are all these people with you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Steve told her, feeling his cheeks go red. "Is there space for everyone?"

Shrugging, the clerk said, "It's a public hearing," and then gave Steve his papers back, gesturing him through the courtroom doors.

Steve followed the directions the bailiff inside gave him, sitting in the gallery, but at the end of the row, so he could get out when the judge called him up. Nancy sat next to him, with Jonathan next to her, and then Harriet and Joyce, and the others further down. Steve couldn't help but wish he could touch Jonathan, too. After all, this wasn't _just_ a name change. It was a big step in their relationship as well. A forever sort of step. Steve took his hand out of Nancy's lap and put it around her shoulders, the backs of his fingers brushing Jonathan's arm.

Jonathan looked over at Steve and gave him a soft smile. Steve smiled back and looked away before he did something stupid, like start babbling about how much he loved Jonathan. Steve had to save all that for later.

After a while where Steve just had to sit there and wait – he sucked at waiting – the judge came in and called the court to order. Steve took his arm from around Nancy and sat up straight, trying not to crumple his paperwork in his sweaty hands. Maybe wearing a full suit in June had been a bad idea.

It turned out that everyone seeing the judge that day was having their name changed. The judge asked the first few what their current name was, what they wanted to change to, and if they were changing their name for any fraudulent reason.

Steve had panicked a bit about this last question when Robin told him about it back in April when they got the paperwork turned in. "Does wanting to feel married to my boyfriend, even though we're both guys and can't get married, count as fraudulent?"

Robin said, "No. I don't think so. And even if it does, those laws suck, so we'll ignore them."

Steve almost missed it when the judge called him up, but Nancy just about pushed him out of his chair. He stood up and went up to the table in front of the judge, who was a friendly looking man with salt-and-pepper hair and a bored expression. 

The bailiff took Steve's paperwork and gave it to the judge. He read it over and then asked, "What's your current full name?"

"Steven Grant Harrington," he said, trying not to wring his hands together too much. 

"And what do you want to change it to?"

"Steven Grant Byers," he replied. 

The judge nodded and asked, "Any fraudulent reason for the change?"

"No, your honor," Steve managed to say.

"Not trying to get out of any debts? Any warrants out for your arrest?"

"No, your honor." 

The judge looked out at the gallery. "Any objections?"

Steve half expected his father to jump out from nowhere and object, but he didn't. No one else objected either.

"Okay," the judge said, picking up his pen and signing Steve's court order. "Petition is granted."

Steve sighed a giant breath of relief, and almost forgot to wait for the bailiff to bring back his forms. Once he had them in hand, Steve went back to his seat, beaming at his family, who were all sitting there in support, grinning.

When he sat down, Nancy pulled him into a quick kiss, and Jonathan squeezed his hand. "Good job, baby," Jonathan whispered.

Steve smiled and mouthed, "Thanks."

They had to wait for the judge to hear seven or eight more cases before they could leave, but Steve didn't care. He'd done it! He'd changed his name. He hadn't even needed to give a reason, like Robin thought he might. It was just over. Done.

Forever.

Steve wanted to kiss Jonathan so bad he could barely sit still. As soon as the judge declared the session over, Steve got to his feet. He kissed Nancy in lieu of kissing Jonathan, and let Robin put his papers into a large envelope, which she gave to Nancy for safekeeping. Then Steve hugged Jonathan, telling him, "I'm yours now, Jonathan. Forever."

"Forever," Jonathan repeated, his eyes shimmering when he pulled back. 

As they walked out of the courtroom, Joyce hugged him too, saying, "My wonderful, brave son."

Steve felt his cheeks go read again, "Thanks, Mom." Then he realized Harriet was behind them. He pulled her into a hug too, saying, "And thank _you_ for being here, Mom."

"You're welcome, Steven." She smiled and fixed a lock of his hair. "I hear there's to be a party now."

Steve laughed. "Yeah. We rented the back room at a restaurant near our place. Do you know how to get there?" Looking around at the others, he asked, "Does everyone know how to get there?"

"Don't worry, baby," Nancy told him, taking his hand and squeezing it. "We've got everything under control."

Between her, Robin, Jonathan, and Charlie, they did. All Steve had to do was walk back to the car and let Jonathan drive. The restaurant was fairly close to home, so Jonathan parked near their building and held Steve's hand as they walked over. By the time they got there, everyone else was already in the party room and there was a big cake in the middle of the table. It read, "Welcome to the family, Steve Byers!"

Steve cried and everyone piled onto a big group hug with Steve in the middle and he had never felt so loved in his entire life.

They ate food, and they ate the cake, and Jenny was just about bouncing off the walls until El and Mike took her to the playground in the park near the Best Western all the out-of-towners were staying at for the visit.

As the restaurant kicked them out in the late afternoon, Hopper squeezed Steve's shoulder and said, "I'm glad you're officially part of the family now, Steve." He looked over at where Jonathan was talking with Will and his friends. "Be good to him, okay? Be good to each other."

"Yeah. Yes," Steve said without hesitation. "I will be."

"Good. Being married to a Byers isn't the easiest thing in the world–"

"Yeah, no kidding," Steve said with a laugh.

Hopper smiled and continued, "But I think you'll find it as worthwhile as I have."

Nodding, Steve said, "Thanks, _Dad_."

Hopper laughed and gave Steve a rough hug. "You're welcome."

Then Steve watched Jonathan take a bag from Charlie and join Steve and Hopper. Addressing Steve, Jonathan said, "I have a surprise for you."

"That's my cue to leave," Hopper said with a wink, joining Joyce and the kids.

"What sort of surprise?" Steve asked, getting hot in the late afternoon sun. He loosened his tie and undid the top button of his shirt as Jonathan got them walking. Nancy had taken his suit coat at some point, packing it away with her things.

"The sort of surprise where we're going this way," Jonathan said, wrapping his hand around Steve's wrist and pulling him left when they came to the intersection. Jonathan waved at everyone, saying to Steve, "And they're all going that way. For the night."

"Just you and me tonight?" Steve asked, wishing it was safer to hold Jonathan's hand out in public on a Tuesday afternoon. They'd already been pushing it a lot that day, but most of that had been in the context of the larger group. Now they were alone.

Nodding, Jonathan asked, "That okay?"

Steve said, "Yeah, of course. It's been awhile since it was just the two of us. Without Nancy."

"Yep. This was her idea, actually," Jonathan told him, knocking his shoulder against Steve's arm. "You and I have lunch on campus together a couple times a week during the school year, but we haven't really had the opportunity for date nights, like we've both had with Nancy while the other was working."

"True," Steve said, giving up and taking his tie all the way off. "You glad this new job I have for the summer is mostly during the day?"

"Yeah," Jonathan admitted, tugging on Steve's shirt and leading him through a crosswalk, taking them closer to the lake. The cool breeze coming down the street off the lake felt like a godsend. "I think it's going to be important for us. You know, to keep making time for each other. So we don't get lopsided again."

Before Steve could follow up on that thought, Jonathan turned toward a big brick building that was actually a hotel, as indicated by the sign above the front door. Steve followed Jonathan into the building, through the lobby, and up the stairs. When Jonathan pulled a room key out of his pocket, Steve asked, "When did you have time to get that?"

"Charlie came over and got it," Jonathan told him.

"When?"

"During lunch," Jonathan grinned and stopped in front of one of the rooms, unlocking it. "Nancy and I distracted you so you wouldn't notice she was missing."

"Sneaky," Steve said with a grin, following Jonathan into the room and closing the door behind them. The room was blissfully air conditioned, and Steve sighed as he put the chain on the door, too. Just in case.

Then Steve remembered his question from a minute earlier. "Are you worried at all that things will get lopsided when Nancy and I get married?"

"No," Jonathan said gently, reaching over and undoing the buttons of Steve's shirt. "Not if we keep talking to each other. Checking in."

Nodding, Steve cupped Jonathan's face in his hands and pulled him into a kiss. It stayed gentler than Steve had been intending, but when Jonathan broke the kiss, he looked up at Steve and smiled. 

"You changed your name for me," Jonathan said, his voice full of awe and surprise, like he'd been worried Steve wouldn't go through with it.

"I did," Steve said in agreement, starting in on the buttons on Jonathan's shirt. "It didn’t exactly come with any vows, but would you mind…" He kissed Jonathan just as gently as before. "...if I started thinking of you as my husband?"

"I'd love that," Jonathan assured him, letting Steve push his dress shirt off his shoulders and onto the ground. He wore a white, sleeveless undershirt beneath it, and Steve couldn't help but draw Jonathan close and kiss the freckles on top of his left shoulder.

His hands on Steve's hips, Jonathan asked, "If there had been vows, what would you have said?"

Steve got out of his dress shirt and the t-shirt underneath before kissing Jonathan again. He rested his forearms on Jonathan's shoulders and swayed with him a little as he gathered his thoughts. "I would have vowed to love you forever, and to support your relationship with Nancy, and to always be your best friend." Steve kissed Jonathan. "I promise you forever. 'Til death do us part."

Clearing his throat and sniffling a little, Jonathan said, "That was, um. It was well put, Mr. Byers."

Steve laughed and pressed his forehead against Jonathan's. "Thank you, Mr. Byers." After giving Jonathan another nice, slow kiss, Steve asked, "What would you promise, sweetheart?"

Jonathan smiled at the pet name he usually used for Nancy. "The same things," he said. "Love, support, friendship. Forever." He smiled and gave Steve a quick kiss before adding, "Patience, when you forget the laundry in the washer. _Again_."

Steve laughed, nodding because they both knew there was no way Steve would remember every single time. He untucked Jonathan's undershirt and pulled it up over his head, dropping it on the ground. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Jonathan replied, unbuckling Steve's belt and then sitting down on the bed before undoing Steve's fly and letting his pants fall to the floor. "I wanna blow you, baby."

"Yeah," Steve said in agreement. "Let's do that."

~*~

“And this is where you’ll be staying,” Nancy said, showing Jenny to the extra bedroom at the end of the hallway. 

“This used to be Charlie’s room,” Jenny said, looking around at the sparse furniture. Between the end of finals week and starting her internship at the Tribune, Nancy had made the time to get fun new sheets and blankets for the bed, and a nightlight for the desk. But there wasn’t much else left in the way of decoration. 

Just like the rest of them, Jenny was moderately afraid of the dark, at least according to Joyce. Nancy wondered if it was because Jenny was just eight years old, or if it had to do with the memories she likely picked up from the rest of the family. El, especially, was afraid of small, dark spaces.

“So, what do you think?” Nancy asked as the air conditioner in the window clicked on and hummed to life. “We can put your toys over here by the desk, and we can put your clothes in the dresser.”

“It’s good,” Jenny said, looking up when Joyce came to the bedroom door. “See, Mom? I get my own room here, too.”

“You certainly do,” Joyce said, coming into the room and giving Jenny a hug. “Do you want me to stay here with you tonight? While you get used to it?”

Jenny shook her head. “El and Will are staying. I’ll be fine.”

Joyce smiled and chuckled softly, pulling Jenny into a hug. “Okay, sweetie. You’ll be fine. Don’t give your siblings any trouble, alright?”

"Okay." 

"And I'll see you tomorrow before we drive back," Joyce added, and Nancy was fairly sure Joyce was going to have a harder time with this separation than Jenny.

Jenny had an impatient, long-suffering tone when she replied, "O- _kay_. Bye, Mom."

Nancy giggled at Joyce's faux-indignant scoff. "Jeez. I guess I'll leave you to your sleepover."

"We're going to have lots of fun," Nancy said, putting her hand on Jenny's shoulder. "I have about a zillion different nail polish colors, and we can order pizza, and watch a movie. It'll be great."

"And then Jonathan and Steve will be back tomorrow?" Jenny asked.

"They will be," Nancy assured her. "They're going to meet us and everyone else at breakfast so we can say some goodbyes."

"Good," Jenny said, coming with when Nancy led the way out to the living room, which was currently occupied by six rowdy teenagers. At least Nancy wouldn't be alone enough to get too lonely without her boys while they were off on their mini-honeymoon together. 

Nancy knew it was important for them to get some time alone together every once in a while. As long as it was only every once in a while, Nancy could totally deal. She couldn't imagine ever going back to living in a different city from them, like during senior year of high school. But one night was doable.

The kids had a Nintendo hooked up to Nancy’s TV, and while Max showed Jenny how to play it, Nancy sat down next to El, saying, “Tell me all about the end of Junior year. How was it?”

“Fine,” El said with an ambivalent shrug. “Okay.”

“Why just okay?” Nancy asked her. 

El looked over at the others, and then angled her head over toward the kitchen. Nancy followed her there, watching as El opened the fridge and pulled out a soda. She sighed again, and then told Nancy, “Someone started a rumor,” she said, popping open the can, “that me and Will were... sleeping together. Even though everyone there thinks we're actually brother and sister.”

“Wow,” Nancy said, leaning back against the counter. “Teenagers are assholes!”

"Dad says we can't retaliate," she muttered darkly. "That our abilities give us too much responsibility and we just need to let it go." She stuck out her tongue in disgust.

Nancy stepped closer and pulled El into a hug.

"You'll get through it," Nancy told her, squeezing her tighter. "Some other scandal will happen and then everyone will forget about the rumor."

"How do you know?"

Nancy laughed sadly and let go of El, leaning on the counter next to her. "I was dating two boys at the same time. Everyone thought I was cheating on one or the other of them. The word 'slut' got thrown in my direction a lot." Nancy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, teenagers are assholes, and being trapped together in a high school only makes things worse."

"It was better afterward?"

Nancy nodded. "Everyone at college is too busy to get caught up in all the who's-dating-who drama. For the most part, anyway."

Looking over at the boys in the living room, El said, "Will won't hold my hand anymore. Not when other people are around."

Nancy frowned, knowing how important touch was to the psychic bond they had. It couldn’t have been everything, though, because Will looked over at them and made a face. El made a face right back at him and he laughed, making El smile in return. Nancy figured things couldn't be too horrible if they were still making each other laugh.

~*~

Jenny wanted to be brave like her big sister, and be able to sleep in her new room by herself, but halfway through the night, she woke up. The air conditioner Nancy had turned on for her was loud, and it made the room too cold. Shivering, Jenny got out of bed and went over to the air conditioner. There was a button that said "power," so she figured that was the one she needed to press.

The machine turned off, and Jenny sighed. The room was still too cold. She went over to the door and she was about to open it, when she saw a memory. Except it wasn't a memory. It was more like a wish. A wish for her to turn the air conditioner back on. And it wasn't hers.

Now that the air conditioner was off, the room was silent. The only light was the nightlight Nancy had bought for her, and Jenny couldn't see the corners of the room. But something was there. When Jenny took a step closer, it made a little noise. A little animal noise. 

It was a little animal, cowering in the corner. Jenny saw the wish again.

"You want me to turn it back on?" Jenny whispered, showing it back the wish.

It made the little noise again.

Keeping her eyes on the little creature, Jenny went over to her bag and pulled out the sweatshirt her mom had packed for her. She put it on, and then went and pressed the power button on the air conditioner. It knocked around and hummed back to life.

The creature took a few tentative steps closer, then it showed her another wish. In this one, Jenny was giving it food. Tasty meat food.

Jenny noticed the way its skin was a little shiny, reflecting the light from the nightlight. Maybe it was wet, like a frog. Jenny showed the creature an image of her petting it, wondering if it would let her find out what it felt like.

It backed away from her, wishing for food again.

"Okay," Jenny whispered. "Wait right here. I'll go get you something to eat."

She slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her so the creature wouldn’t follow. The apartment was dark, but there was some light coming from the nightlight in the bathroom, and coming in through the windows in the living room. In the stripes of light that came through the blinds, Jenny saw that Nancy's couch was now a bed. Jenny’s brother and sister were sleeping in it, along with their friend Mike. The other friends had gone. Jenny guessed back to the hotel, but no one had told her, so she couldn't be sure.

As quietly as she could, Jenny went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There wasn't much food in there. Not like at home. But there was left over pizza. Jenny sent the little creature a picture of her giving it pizza. She felt the way it recoiled.

It wanted meat. 

Sighing, Jenny opened the meat drawer and found a package of sandwich turkey. She figured that would have to do. Taking the package out of the drawer, she closed it carefully, and then eased the refrigerator closed too.

It was hard to see her way back once the refrigerator was closed, no longer lighting up the kitchen, but she made it. 

Back at her room, Jenny carefully pushed the door open. She felt the creature still in there. It sat in the middle of the room, right where the air conditioner was blowing cold air. Easing the door closed behind her, Jenny watched it for a moment. 

It turned its head toward her, and now that it was out in the light, she could see that it was about the size of the squirrel Mike had pointed out in the park the day before. Its skin was smooth and shiny, and it didn't really seem to have a face like Jenny figured it would. How did it know what the things it had showed her looked like without eyes?

Showing her the wish for food again, it took two steps closer to her, eager and hungry. 

"Okay, okay," she told it. Opening the package, she took out a slice of turkey and dropped it on the floor. The creature got closer to it, inspecting it before opening its… Well, it didn't exactly have a _mouth_. It was more like its whole face was a mouth. It gobbled up the slice of turkey and turned its attention to her again.

It showed her another wish: Jenny dropping the whole package of tasty meat food onto the ground where it could reach.

"Don't blame me if you get sick," she told it, turning over the package and dumping the whole thing on the floor. 

As it started eating, the creature sent her an image of it letting her pet it. So, Jenny stepped closer and crouched down, touching it first with just one finger on its back. It was cool and slimy, and its tail wriggled around a little bit as she stroked her finger down it. The noise it made was sort of happy, and so she pet it again.

Too cold, and shivering, Jenny decided that was enough. She wiped the slime off her finger onto her pajamas, and thought she'd go find somewhere warmer to sleep. "Goodnight," she whispered to the creature, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her. 

Out in the living room, the couch-bed thing was full with Will and El and Mike all sleeping in it. Then Jenny noticed that the door to Nancy's room was open a little bit. When she went in there, it smelled familiar. Like Jonathan and Steve's room at her house. And it was a lot warmer than the other bedroom, the air conditioner here turned off and silent. 

Jenny took off her sweatshirt, dropping it on the floor, and climbed into the other side of the bed from where Nancy was sleeping. The bed smelled even more like her brothers, and Jenny found herself getting sleepy right away. She closed her eyes and it didn't take long before she fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

When Jonathan woke up to a beeping noise, his pillow took a deep breath, and he realized it was actually Steve under him. He shifted to the side and back onto the bed, using his hand to wipe off the puddle of drool he'd left on Steve's chest.

"Mornin'," Steve said, stretching with a quiet groan.

Looking over at him, Jonathan smiled. "Hey."

Pulling Jonathan back in close with his arms and one of his legs, Steve asked, "How much time do we have, Pumpkin?"

"Pumpkin?" Jonathan asked with a laugh.

"No?" Steve smiled as he kissed Jonathan. "What about Smoochie Poo?"

Still laughing, Jonathan shook his head. "No way! That's even worse!"

"Come on," Steve said, kissing Jonathan's neck. "Married people always have stupid, cute names for each other."

"I call you baby." Jonathan ran his hand up Steve's arm as Steve climbed over on top of him, settling between Jonathan's legs.

Steve kissed Jonathan's neck again, saying, "Yeah, but you and Nance won't let me use it anymore."

"Because we're older than you now," Jonathan said, putting his feet on the mattress and using his legs to shift Steve's hips around a little.

Steve gave a little snort against Jonathan's jaw. "Yeah, whose driver's license would get them into a bar right now, yours or mine?"

"Yours," Jonathan said, taking a sharp breath when Steve gave a little thrust with his hips, sliding his cock against Jonathan's. "You still call me babe."

"My love cannot be expressed with just one pet name," Steve said, kissing Jonathan deeply and rocking his hips again.

As the kiss broke, Jonathan told him, "You can also call me Jonathan. That's two whole names."

"Still not enough!" Steve said with a silly giggle. "What about something simple? Like, dear?"

Sliding his hands down to Steve's waist, Jonathan said, "Moderately acceptable." He tilted his hips, enjoying the friction against his cock, even if it wasn't as slick as he would like. "I don't _hate_ honey."

"Yeah?" Steve asked, kissing him again. "Nancy uses that one a lot."

"Mm-hm." Looking around on the bed, Jonathan asked, "Where'd the stuff go?"

"Why?" Steve asked, even as he ground down against Jonathan's cock again. "You want me to fuck you, sweetheart?"

Jonathan groaned at the sudden feeling of heat as his muscles clenched and his cock twitched against Steve.

"Oh," Steve said in a low voice, pushing up with his arms and looking down at Jonathan. " _That's_ the one."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jonathan insisted, his face feeling hot as he reached under the pillow and found the lube. "Here, baby. I found it. We don't have much time."

"Uh-huh. Sure," Steve said knowingly with a kiss to Jonathan's lips before he got up on his knees and took the lube from Jonathan. He slicked up quickly before pushing Jonathan's legs up and slipping across and then into Jonathan's hole. "How's this, sweetheart?" he said, leaning in close enough that Jonathan could reach up and kiss him.

His face still feeling hot, but the rest of him feeling blissed out and oddly calm, Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, okay. I like that one."

Steve chuckled and finished working his way in, putting one hand on the side of Jonathan's face and kissing him, deep and slow. Then he murmured into Jonathan's ear as he gave achingly measured thrusts of his hips. "You're mine, sweetheart. My babe. My Jonathan. My love."

Between the drag of Steve's cock across Jonathan's prostate, the sweet words in his ear, and the unfathomably deep love in Steve's heart, something had to give. Tears welled up in the corners of Jonathan's eyes and when he blinked, they overflowed, running down the sides of his face. He held Steve close with an arm around the back of his neck, and wrapped his legs around Steve's waist. His shaky breath drew Steve's attention.

"Are you okay?" he asked, in that same low, loving tone of voice.

Nodding, Jonathan told him, "Good. I'm so good."

"Yes, you are," Steve said, taking a heavy breath. He sped up a little bit, saying, "You're so good. You're perfect. God, I love you so much."

Jonathan tilted his hips to meet Steve's thrusts, pushing his cock against Steve's belly and hanging on, letting Steve take all of the control. "Love you too, baby. Love you."

The phone beside the bed rang and Steve stopped. "What the…?"

"No, Steve," Jonathan whispered. "Please. Keep…"

Steve gave Jonathan a positively mischievous grin and reached over, taking the phone off the hook. He giggled a little bit and held the phone up to Jonathan's ear.

Narrowing his eyes at Steve, Jonathan said, "H-hello?"

"G'morning, sweetie," said Nancy's voice, and Jonathan let out a relieved breath, taking the phone from Steve and holding it up to his ear himself.

"Hey, Na-ancy," Jonathan said, his voice hitching when Steve thrust into him. "What's g-going on-nn?"

Sounding a little confused, she said, "Just calling to make sure you're awake. We're meeting at Tony's in an hour."

"W-we're awa-ake," Jonathan told her, biting his lips to hold back the groan he almost gave.

"Hey, Nance," Steve said loudly enough for her to hear, grinning as he picked up speed. 

In a quiet voice, she asked, "Are you fucking?"

"Ma-aybe," Jonathan told her, a laugh bubbling up in his throat.

Laughing too, Steve put his weight on his left arm and took the phone with his right hand. "Did you know…" Steve said, pausing to take a few quick breaths, "that our husband… _loves_ being called… sweetheart?"

Jonathan wasn't close enough to be able to understand Nancy's reply, but he couldn't hold back any longer. He cried out, getting a hand on his cock and stroking a few times until he came.

"Shit, oh shit," Steve said, dropping the phone and thrusting even faster, even though Jonathan was clenched tight around him. 

Quickly getting oversensitive, Jonathan wiped the come off his stomach with his fingers, and then stuck his coated fingers in Steve's mouth. Steve groaned around them, his eyes rolling up, and then he pressed in tight once more and came.

Catching his breath, Jonathan found the phone from beside them on the bed and picked it up. "Nance? You still there?"

"I am so mad I have to go to work today," she said with a little huff. "Jesus. Please tell me you're done."

"We're done," Jonathan assured her, taking a sharp breath when Steve pulled out. "We'll get cleaned up. We'll be there on time."

"Thank you," she said, before getting a little extra sass in her voice, " _sweetheart_."

Jonathan groaned and hung up on her. 

Steve laughed, pressing a kiss to Jonathan's lips. "Come on. We both need to shower. There's no way we're showing up at a family breakfast smelling like this."

"Yeah, no," Jonathan agreed, taking Steve's hand and letting him lead the way to the bathroom.

~*~

The walk from the hotel over to Tony's was a little long, but not too bad. It would have been more enjoyable if Steve wasn't just a bit sore from going four rounds with Jonathan in the span of sixteen hours. Seeing the way Jonathan was limping a little bit, too, Steve said, "Maybe we should have called a cab."

Jonathan laughed. "No, this is good. Stretch our legs some. After all, we have to keep up with an eight-year-old for the next two weeks."

"True," Steve said, noticing in the summer morning sun just how happy Jonathan looked. It was more than just happy, though. He looked… calm. Calmer than he’d looked in a while. 

A moment later, he looked over at Steve and asked, “What?”

Shaking his head, Steve stuffed his hands in the pockets of his shorts so he wouldn’t try to hold Jonathan’s hand. “Being sort-of-married looks good on you.”

Jonathan gave him a soft smile, then looked ahead again and said, “Thanks, _pumpkin_.”

Steve gave a delighted laugh that was a bit too loud, so he covered his mouth with one hand, and playfully smacked Jonathan’s shoulder with the other. He still had a smile on his face five minutes later when they walked into the restaurant. 

Breakfast was a loud, chaotic affair, and it struck Steve again after he’d finished ordering that everyone was here for _him_.

Nancy sat between Steve and Jonathan, eating quickly, and then giving them both kisses on the cheek before she left to go catch her train downtown. In her absence, Steve couldn’t help but move over a chair, pressing his shoulder to Jonathan’s as they finished eating.

“What do you think you guys will do this week?” Joyce asked from across the table. 

Looking over at Jonathan, and then at Jenny, Steve said, “I’ve got a few ideas. The zoo is pretty cool.”

“Yeah, the zoo!” Jenny said, jumping a little in her seat. “I love animals!”

Taking the last bite of his pancakes, Jonathan asked his parents, “You guys still thinking about getting a dog?”

“Thinking about it, yes,” Joyce said, giving Jenny a significant look. “But someone needs to show that she’s responsible enough to take care of a pet first.”

“It would be nice to have a dog again,” Jonathan said, knocking his knee against Steve’s. “Maybe after we’re done with school?”

“Wait, _us_ get a dog?” Steve asked. “But they’re so…” He made a face. “Smelly.”

“Will says they’re not if you give them lots of baths,” Jenny told him. 

Suddenly, Steve remembered. “Oh, you guys used to have a dog. Like when we were first–” Steve had to stop himself from saying that _particular_ word in front of Jenny. “Dating,” he finished lamely. “That white dog.”

“Chester,” Jonathan said, nodding. “When Will was in the hospital, we had Mrs. Frankle down the street take care of him.”

“Yeah, she seemed to need his company more than we did,” Joyce said sadly. “Even after we got home, she was taking care of him more than we were. We decided to let her keep him. They got along so well.”

Jonathan seemed sad, so Steve leaned closer and told him, “ _Maybe_ we could get a dog. After we’re done with school. If Nancy wants one, too.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jonathan said. 

Steve just wanted him to be happy again, so he put his hand over Jonathan’s under the table, slotting their fingers together and squeezing. Jonathan gave him a happier smile, so Steve was satisfied. 

“I’m really good at taking care of animals,” Jenny said. “I could definitely take care of a dog.”

“Sure you could, kiddo,” Steve told her with a smile. 

After everyone was done with breakfast, they meandered outside as a group. Steve spent a few minutes catching up with Dustin, asking him, “So, what do you think? You applying to Caltech like the rest of these weirdos?”

“Nah, my mom would kill me if I tried to move that far away from home.” He scratched the back of his neck, “I’m looking at places like Purdue, and Northwestern, actually.”

“Yeah?”

Dustin nodded. “I got, well…” He looked around a little before leaning closer and murmuring, “I got a 1560 on my SATs.” Returning to a more normal tone of voice, he said, “Mrs. Cahill thinks I could get in just about anywhere.”

Wow, Steve had not thought about Mrs. Cahill, the Hawkins high guidance counselor, in a _long_ time. He said to Dustin, “That’s so great! How cool would it be if you came here for college too?”

“Pretty cool,” Dustin said with a pleased smile and a nod. Then he held out his hand for their secret handshake, and Steve was more than happy to oblige.

And then there were lots of hugs and tearful goodbyes. Mike was taking Dustin, Max, and Lucas back to Hawkins with him. Hopper and Joyce were taking El and Will back to Springfield. 

Before they left, Joyce gave Steve a long hug and said, “I know you’re going to be doing the majority of looking after Jenny while she’s here, so again – thank you.”

“Of course,” Steve told her, getting in one more hug. “What is family for, if not stuff like this?”

She sniffled and nodded, giving Steve another smile. “Okay, we’ll call every day, and we’ll make sure you’ll have the number where we’ll be when we have to leave town to chase this lead.”

“I still think it’s cool you guys are working together,” Steve told her. “Do you miss your old job?”

Joyce scrunched up her nose and said, “Not at all,” which made Steve laugh.

“Okay, bye guys! Be safe!”

“You too,” Joyce called back, getting into the passenger seat of their new minivan.

Looking at the car, Steve told Jonathan, “I still can’t get over the fact that Hop gave up his truck and got a minivan.”

“It’s a dad thing,” Jonathan said, holding out his hand to his little sister, who took it. “Come on. Let’s drop some stuff off at home and decide what we’re going to do with the rest of the day.”

“Okay,” Jenny said, a little more withdrawn than usual, like her thoughts were still with the rest of her family in that minivan driving away. When she reached her free hand toward Steve, he took it, even though it meant walking three-people-across down the sidewalk, like assholes. 

Steve looked over Jenny’s head at Jonathan, and how he was talking to Jenny, reassuring her everything was going to be fine. And god damn it, he _knew_. Steve knew he wanted to have kids with Jonathan. And with Nancy. Someday. 

~*~

When Nancy got home after officially completing the first week of her internship at the Chicago Tribune, nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her when she opened the apartment door.

Steve was sitting on the couch, letting Jenny put bright pink eye shadow on his eyes. It matched the dress of Nancy’s that he was sort-of wearing (it wasn’t zipped in the back) and the lipstick already on his mouth. Before Nancy could think of how to comment, she saw Jonathan in the kitchen. He had several barrettes in his hair, a full face of gaudy, glittery make-up, and he was wearing one of Nancy’s sundresses (also unzipped) over his t-shirt and shorts. 

“Hey,” he said, smiling at her. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

“Nancy!” Jenny cried out. “Look at how pretty I made them!”

“So pretty,” Nancy agreed, trying her best not to laugh. “Good job!”

She joined Jonathan in the kitchen, giving him a questioning look.

He shrugged and grinned, saying, “It kept her entertained for the last couple hours.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” she said, taking the plates from the drying rack and stacking them together to bring over to the table. “I’m glad you guys are having fun.”

After dinner, and watching one of Jenny's movies, and getting her to bed, Nancy went into the bathroom to get ready for bed herself. Steve was sitting on the closed toilet, Jonathan rubbing at his face with a washcloth. "I'm not sure I can get all of this off," he said with a confused looking frown.

Steve complained, "But I'm going to go get my new ID tomorrow. What if they want to take a new picture?"

Nancy couldn't help but laugh at the idea of Steve walking around with a driver's license picture of him covered in little girl makeup. "Here," she said, taking her cold cream out of the cabinet across from the sink. "Let me do it."

"Sure," Jonathan said, giving Steve a kiss and then stepping back, letting Nancy in.

"You know," she said to Steve, opening the cold cream and scooping a small amount out with her fingers, "You actually look really pretty wearing lipstick."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Sure."

“You do!” Nancy rubbed the cold cream into Steve's skin, paying extra attention to the spots with the thickest layers of makeup, like the wild blush on his cheeks and the five or six different colors of eye shadow. After a minute, Jonathan took some of the cold cream and stood in front of the mirror, copying what Nancy was doing, but on his own face.

"Are you excited to get your new license?" Nancy asked Steve, very carefully applying the cream on his eyelids.

"Yeah, kind of," Steve said. "I think it's going to take a while to get used to the new name."

Taking the wet cloth from the side of the sink, Nancy washed it out a little and then brought it back damp. "How was your stay at the hotel last night?"

Smiling as she wiped the cream and makeup from his face, Steve said, "Good." Eyes still closed, he found Nancy's hips with his hands. "Thank you for making that happen for us."

"You're welcome," she told him, finishing up and handing the cloth over to Jonathan. "I was thinking…"

"What were you thinking?" Steve asked, his hands moving back from her hips to her ass as he smiled up at her.

Rolling her eyes at his wandering hands, Nancy said, "I was thinking that my internship ends two weeks before school starts back up again."

"One week in Hawkins, one in Springfield?" Jonathan asked, rinsing out the cloth and then using it on his own face.

"No." Nancy let Steve pull her down into his lap, putting her arms around him to steady herself. "Well, not for the whole time. I was thinking it might be nice to go on a real vacation, just the three of us. For a week or so."

"Yeah?" Jonathan asked. "Where would we go?"

" _Not_ a log cabin in the woods," Steve said, nuzzling his face into the crook of Nancy's neck and making her laugh.

She told him, "No. I was thinking somewhere with a beach."

"Ooh," Steve said, kissing Nancy's neck. "A whole week with you in a bikini? And Jonathan in little swim shorts? Count me in."

Jonathan was frowning at the mirror, so Nancy nudged him with her foot. "What? Don't you think the beach would be fun? Go see the ocean?"

"I've never been to the beach," Jonathan told them sheepishly. "Just the Hawkins pool. I don't even have a swimsuit anymore."

"Oh, then we're definitely going," Steve said, reaching for Jonathan. 

Jonathan gave Steve his hand, but said, "Yeah, unless Owens decides he needs to send me and Charlie somewhere that week."

Nancy got up from Steve's lap and wrapped her arms around Jonathan, kissing his pout. "If we can't go that week, we'll make it happen some other time. I promise."

Jonathan nodded and kissed Nancy again. "Do you think," he said, leaning back against the sink, "after you and Steve get married, you'll go on a honeymoon?"

"Yes. Of course," Nancy told him, looking over at Steve, who nodded. "We should save up. I want to go to Paris."

"We can go to Paris," Steve said, standing up and crowding close to the both of them. "I hear it's the city of _love_."

Smiling and rolling her eyes at him, Nancy said, "It _would_ be romantic."

Jonathan looked down as he asked, "Do you want it to be just you two? On that trip? Like how Steve and I had last night?"

Frowning, Nancy insisted, "No. I–" She looked over at Steve, who looked just as distraught at the suggestion as Nancy felt. "One night apart was bad enough! We want you to come with us. Right, Steve?"

"Right," he said automatically, stepping closer and pressing his forehead to the side of Jonathan's face. "We can't go on a honeymoon without our husband."

A smile spread across Jonathan's face and he nodded. "Okay. Alright."

Nancy couldn't help but give a little relieved laugh and kiss him. Then she noticed how close they were all standing together. "Did you guys wear yourselves out last night, or could we maybe…"

"Jenny's not asleep yet," Jonathan told her. "But after?" He looked over to Steve.

"Fuck, I don't know," Steve told them. "I think I pulled a muscle this morning."

Jonathan laughed. "Really?"

"Yeah." Steve kissed Jonathan's neck and pulled Nancy just a little bit closer. "Maybe I need you guys to massage it for me."

"Uh-huh," Nancy said, noting the wickedness of Steve's grin. "And where _exactly_ is this pulled muscle?"

Stepping around Nancy and Jonathan and out the bathroom door, he took Nancy's hand, and then Jonathan's. "Come to the bedroom and I'll show you."

Laughing, Nancy let Steve pull her into their room and over to their bed, Jonathan just behind her, locking the bedroom door after they were through it.

~*~

Everything was dark and quiet when Jenny woke up. It took her a moment to remember she was in her brothers' apartment, and not in her room at home. That day had been a little cooler than the one before, with a rain shower in the late afternoon that kept them inside and cooled off the apartment. Jenny hadn't thought to turn on the air conditioner in her room, and neither had anyone else.

The creature was back, sitting in the darkest corner of her room, showing her its wish. It wanted the room colder.

"But that makes it too cold for me to sleep," Jenny told it, keeping her voice low. She could tell that the others in the room next door were asleep, and she didn't want to get in trouble for waking them up. 

Making a soft, displeased noise, the creature showed her its wish-thought for food. Meat food, it wanted.

Well, of course it was hungry, if it hadn't eaten anything since the night before. Poor thing!

"I'll go get you something," Jenny told it, thinking about the sandwich ham that Jonathan and Steve had bought at the store that day. They had taken Jenny shopping along with them and bought her a bag of peanut M&Ms and her favorite cereal for breakfast. 

Jenny wondered if the creature liked M&Ms. It was too bad she'd eaten them all and didn't have any left to give it. She wondered if it would like cereal. Maybe she should test it out, like Will was always doing with his science experiments.

Jenny could run her own science experiment!

She tiptoed out of her room and down the hall, into the kitchen. She took the sandwich ham out of the fridge, and also a hot dog. The pantry cupboard was up too high for her to reach, until she climbed up onto the counter and opened it. Jenny took two cookies out of the package (one for herself), and a sleeve of crackers, and the new box of cereal.

After climbing down from the counter, Jenny scooped up all the food in her arms and carried it back to her room. She almost dropped the package of crackers, but she managed to make it back with everything still in her arms. She used her foot to close the door again, and when she turned around, she saw the creature climbing the air conditioner with its claws, pressing its head against the control panel.

It wasn't having much luck, because the air conditioner was still off. 

"Here," Jenny said, getting its attention and putting the hot dog on the floor. "Come eat this. You'll like it."

With a defeated little noise, the creature jumped down to the ground and approached the hot dog. Jenny watched its shiny sides move as it breathed in and out, like it was smelling the hot dog, even though she couldn't see where its nose might be. Eventually, it started eating the hot dog, gobbling it down. It showed her another wish-thought for raw meat, but the hot dog was alright.

"What about this?" Jenny asked, putting one of the cookies down on the floor next to the creature. She took the other one and started eating it. "Yum, yum. Cookies are good!"

The creature sniffed at the cookie a couple times, then went back to the hot dog.

"Maybe you're a carnivore," Jenny said, thinking that when Steve took her to the zoo – they might go in the morning if it had stopped raining – she would go look at the carnivores. Like the lions. Maybe the zookeepers could tell her what sorts of foods were good for carnivores, besides lunch meat and hot dogs and raw hamburger (gross).

Watching it finish off the hot dog, Jenny took some of the cereal out of the box and put it on the floor nearby too. "I wonder what I should call you. Do you have a name?"

In response, it showed her a memory of running through cool sewer tunnels, its feet splashing through the water trickling down the pipe.

"Is that your home?" Jenny asked. "Or is that somehow your name? Splash?"

The creature didn't respond. "I can call you Splash. Do you want to come live with me in my house?" Jenny showed the creature what her house looked like. Then she imagined her and it going through the door, having fun running around inside.

Splash showed her back the wish, but with the lights and the furnace off. 

"No, home should be nice and cozy," she told it. "Bright and warm! Cold and dark is too much like the hospital." She showed it her old, windowless room with its cinder block walls and its cold linoleum floor. 

Without comment, Splash sniffed at the cereal. It ate a bite, but made a distressed noise and spit it out. 

"Okay, okay," Jenny said with a laugh. She took some of the ham out of the package and put it on the floor next to Splash. 

This time it made a happier noise and started eating again. 

Yep, it was definitely a carnivore!

Then Splash stopped eating, raising its head like it was listening to something. After one last bite, Splash ran over to the window. 

"Do you want me to open it for you?" Jenny asked, wondering how it had gotten inside in the first place. 

She didn't have to wonder for long. Splash 'ported through the closed window, out onto the fire escape, and ran off into the night. A sharp thrill of surprise ran down Jenny's back. She didn't know any animals that could do _that_!

There was a soft knock on her door, and then it opened and Steve was on the other side. His hair was all over the place and he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts instead of pajamas. "Hey, what's going on?"

Looking around at the food she had out, Jenny wondered if Steve would understand about her new friend. Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he wouldn't let her feed it anymore. So, Jenny told him, "I got hungry."

He gave a little laugh and said, "Okay. Can you go back to sleep now?"

Jenny nodded. She got back into bed as Steve gathered up the package of ham and the crackers and the cereal. Holding them all in one arm, he used the other hand to tuck Jenny back in. 

"Good?"

"Yes. Thank you."

He smiled and put a quick kiss on her forehead. "You're welcome, kiddo."

When he said "kiddo" like that, it reminded Jenny of her dad. She smiled and curled back down into bed, feeling sleepy again. When Steve left, he closed the door behind him.

If Splash ever came back, Jenny didn't notice because she fell back asleep again.


	4. Chapter 4

"Thanks for coming with tonight, guys," Charlie said to Nancy and Jonathan. "I know it's hard while you're working and looking after Jenny and everything."

"It's fine," Nancy told her. "If you think you found something important, we want to know about it."

Jonathan nodded too, putting his hand in Charlie’s while they walked. 

Charlie returned his nod, and gave a glance to Robin, walking behind them with Nancy, before saying, "Yeah, I might be totally off-base with this one, but I swear it feels like another nest."

Jonathan sighed in frustration. "I hope this isn't happening in any other cities. Can you imagine if they started to spread like rats?"

"Yeah, killer rats," Robin said. "Eight-foot-tall bipedal rats with no face and about a thousand teeth."

Charlie shivered. Over the past few months, she and Robin had spent an hour or two most nights walking around the north part of the city, looking for more of the slugs that had escaped the nest they found with the rest of the Byers family back in February. So far, for every dead specimen she'd brought back, Owens had given her another five hundred bucks in compensation. That was on top of the two grand he'd wired into her account for the job she and Jonathan had just pulled in the CSSR. 

It was an exhausting, often dirty job, but it was a lot less boring than waiting tables. Plus, she only had to be nice to Robin, but that was easy. Robin was awesome. Being nice to the diners at a restaurant was honestly even more exhausting to her than wandering the city, catching and killing baby monsters.

She led the way toward one of the manhole covers in the middle of a side street. Casting her senses downward, she found the cold-shivery feeling of demogorgon and showed it to Jonathan. _You feel that_?

_ Yeah _ , he told her, opening his eyes and telling the others, "There's definitely something down there. Something bigger than the slugs you've been finding all spring."

Charlie took her hand out of Jonathan's and pulled the manhole hook out of the bag on her shoulder. Using her arms and a little bit of her psychic power, Charlie got the heavy manhole cover off and into the street. Robin set down four traffic cones around the area, and then switched on her flashlight. Charlie took her helmet out of her bag and turned on the headlamp, shining it down the manhole before climbing down.

The stench was pretty bad, but at this point, Charlie was almost used to it. She searched around for any threats, both with her eyes and with her other senses, guarding the ladder as the others climbed down. Nancy and Jonathan both turned on their own flashlights, shining them either way down the sewer tunnel. Once Robin got down the ladder, the last in line, Charlie said, “Okay. Let’s go this way.”

She led the way through the sewer tunnel, building a map in her head as they went. Luckily, it wasn't too far, and there were only three turns before they got to the source of the demogorgon feeling. "It's right over there," Charlie told the others, reaching for Jonathan's hand again. "We're not sensing any big guys, but keep your heads up just in case."

When they turned one more corner, Charlie's headlamp illuminated a web of tar-black vines stuck to the concrete wall. "Shit."

Jonathan's flashlight followed another network of vines on the other side of the sewer. "Oh, fuck. How far does this go?"

After a few steps, Nancy said, “I think these are bones.”

“Human bones?” Robin asked her. Charlie kept her focus ahead of them, on the lookout for monsters.

“No, I don’t think so,” Nancy said. “I’m just guessing by the size, but maybe dog? Or raccoon?”

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Charlie said, taking a few more steps before Jonathan took a sharp breath. Charlie looked over at where he had his flashlight pointed. It was a larger tangle of vines, bulged out away from the sewer wall. “Wait. Is that…?”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, tugging Charlie closer to the mass of vines. “It used to be a person.”

“Fuck,” Robin said from behind them. “Any idea how long they’ve been here?”

Jonathan made a displeased noise, and then _pulled_ the vines away from the body, revealing not much more than a skeleton and some putrid-smelling slime. “Ugh,” he said, covering his nose and mouth with his free hand. “I’d guess a while.”

Charlie covered her nose as well, trying not to gag. Then she heard something skitter down the tunnel, scraping against the concrete with tiny-sounding claws. She reached out and found the alive-but-wrong feeling she’d come to associate with monster larvae, and _pulled_ it back toward them.

It came, making a screeching, chattering sort of noise and flailing as Charlie pulled it through the air. As it came closer, she fixed her headlamp on it, finding it had four legs, a tail, and appeared to be about the size of a large rat or a small dog. She was just about to snap its neck, when it suddenly disappeared. “What the fuck?”

The scrabble of claws against the concrete resumed farther down the sewer pipe, too far away for Charlie to be able to grab it again.

“What just happened?” Nancy asked, stepping closer to the human skeleton and inspecting it warily.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said, looking over to Jonathan. “It’s almost like…”

“It ‘ported,” he said, finishing her thought. 

“Yeah,” she agreed, looking back down the tunnel. “It ‘ported away. Since when can they do that?”

“I wonder if it depends on who they eat,” Nancy said, poking at the skeleton with a pen. “Like, if that's why they're taking people like you guys. What if this person could teleport?”

Charlie sighed and took off her helmet, scratching her sweaty hair underneath. “I don’t know. When I showed Owens’ scientists in D.C. what I can do, they were real excited. I thought they might not let me go home.”

Jonathan nodded. “They’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Just because those assholes haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” Robin said, shining her flashlight around the rest of the area. “Are there any more babies around here?”

Charlie joined Jonathan in closing her eyes and searching for that tell-tale wrongness. They felt a sort of low-level malignancy coming from the vines themselves. And then, _there_. A few more yards down, there was another body adhered to the wall of the sewer with vines. 

Jonathan brought Charlie with him over to look at it. “I think it’s another dog,” he said, rubbing his forehead and grimacing. “Oh, this is so disgusting.”

“Can you feel…?” Charlie asked him, focusing on the bad-wrong feeling she was getting. All of a sudden, she realized, “They’re waiting.”

“For what?” Robin asked her.

“I can’t tell,” Jonathan said.

Charlie pushed a little deeper, trying to understand why she’d said they were waiting. And then she had it. “It’s summer. It’s too hot for them. They’re waiting for it to get cold again.”

“They like it cold,” Jonathan said in a whisper, nodding when Charlie showed him the almost-thoughts she was picking up from the nest.

“How many are there?” Nancy asked. “Can you kill them?”

Charlie and Jonathan made a mutual assessment of the nest, and Charlie told Nancy, “There’s at least twenty here.”

“Shit, look at this,” Robin said from further down the sewer. “It’s another one. Big enough to be human.”

“Can we burn them all?” Jonathan asked.

“No,” Charlie told him. “For one, these pipes aren't just storm sewers. They have a lot of methane in them. We’d probably blow ourselves up if we tried.”

"And for two?" Nancy asked her.

Charlie smiled at her and said, "If we don't bring bodies back to Owens, we don't get paid."

"Well, how should we get all of them out of here?" Nancy asked. "We have to make sure none of them escape."

"How did Owens' guys get the adults out of the upside down?" Robin asked. "The Russians had some sort of electrified cage."

"Yeah, we haven't been let in on that particular piece of information," Charlie told her. "All I have is the tupperware I've been using to bring the bodies back."

"Is it big enough?" Jonathan asked her.

Shaking her head, Charlie took it out of her bag. "No, I don't think so."

"If they're waiting for colder weather," Robin said, crossing her arms and looking at the nest, "maybe we can get a consult and come back tomorrow. Bring some of Owens' scientists to help us catch them."

Jonathan sighed deeply. "Hopefully they won't move the nest in the meantime."

Nancy wrapped her arm around Jonathan. "I'm almost done building a new power generator for our place. Maybe I could take a crack at building an electrified cage once I'm done. No promises that it'll keep one of those things from teleporting, but you never know."

Jonathan smiled at her and nodded. "I'll help you."

Charlie couldn't help but cast her senses down the sewer tunnel, looking for the creature that got away. She hated the thought that it was out there, growing bigger, growing into something she couldn't take out on her own.

~*~

"And now that we've made that connection," Nancy said to Jenny, setting the soldering iron aside and turning it off, "we should be able to plug it in and turn it on."

"Cool," she said, watching as Nancy put the back panel onto the device. "Can I help with the screws?"

An indulgent smile on her face, Nancy said, "Sure." She handed Jenny the screwdriver and the first screw, pointing to the hole it needed to go into. "Right there."

Jenny took to the task carefully, but without hesitation. As Nancy watched her, she asked, "Does Will ever let you help with his projects?"

"Not usually," she said, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she turned the screwdriver. "He says I'm too little. That he can do it faster without me helping."

Nancy sighed. "Yeah. I asked my dad once if I could help him replace the broken board on one of the basement steps. He said I would just mess it up. That he needed to do it, so he could make sure it was done right. I didn't like that answer very much."

"Hoppy lets me help with stuff," Jenny said, before shaking her head. “Sorry, I’m supposed to call him _Dad_. Hoppy’s his secret identity name.”

Nancy smiled, and wondered if she should get used to calling Hopper "Jim" instead. After Lonnie had found Jonathan a few months earlier, they’d all gotten a little bit better about protecting their privacy. At least, as much as they could while still living in society.

“What sort of things do you help with?” Nancy asked her. 

“He let me help paint the downstairs bedroom last year,” Jenny said, turning the screwdriver a few final times. “And I pounded in a bunch of the nails when we built the secret staircase. And!” She gave Nancy an excited look, “After I get to go back home, he’s going to help me build a tree house!”

Nancy smiled at Jenny and helped her place the next screw. “That sounds great. I never got to have a treehouse when I was a kid.” She didn’t explain that she had been too busy with ballet as a child to have time for things like building tree houses or repainting rooms. Or that her dad was too busy to spearhead any treehouse projects either. 

Jenny went quiet as she turned the screwdriver, but she had a noticeable frown on her face. 

“What’s wrong?” Nancy asked her. 

Jenny looked at Nancy for a brief second, and then looked away again. She sniffled. She put down the screwdriver and hid her face in her hands, hiding the way she was obviously crying.

Nancy panicked for a moment. What was she supposed to do? The last time she'd comforted a child (except for baby Charlie), it had been Holly, and she'd been four years old at the time. Was comforting an eight-year-old that much different from comforting a four-year-old? It couldn't be _that_ different, right?

For a brief second, it occured to Nancy that if she'd stayed with Charlie instead of giving her away, she'd have a lot more experience with this kind of stuff. Then again, she wouldn't be here taking care of Jenny if she'd done that, so it was a moot point anyway.

Doing her best to use a comforting tone of voice, Nancy asked, "What is it?"

Jenny turned toward Nancy and leaned closer to her, so Nancy put her arms around the girl and hugged her. She took hitched breaths and sniffled again, but didn’t answer and she didn’t cry out loud like Holly still did on occasion. After a few moments, when Jenny seemed a little calmer, Nancy asked again, "Can you tell me what it is?"

Taking a shaky breath, Jenny nodded. "I don't want to go back to the hospital."

"You don't have to go back," Nancy assured her right away. "Sweetie, no one in this family is going to allow anyone to take you away from us. Okay?"

Jenny wiped her face and met Nancy's eyes before asking her, "Even if Mom and Dad don't come back?"

"They're coming back, Jenny," Nancy told her, hugging her closer. Except, Nancy remembered being small, and she remembered her mother assuring her that nothing bad would ever happen, and she remembered being _completely_ blindsided when Barb was killed. Nancy _couldn't_ promise that Jenny's parents were coming back. 

Bad things happened to good people all the time.

What good was it to shield Jenny, who already had access to everyone's worst memories, and already knew some of the worst stuff that was out there, from the truth? 

Petting Jenny's hair, Nancy told her, "If something bad happens to your Mom and Dad, you and your brother and your sister will have a home with us, okay? Jonathan and Steve and I will take care of you."

Sniffling a little more, Jenny nodded. Then she asked, "If I lived with you, could I have a pet?"

Completely flummoxed at the change in direction, Nancy nodded. "Um, yeah. I guess. We could get a pet. Something small. Sure."

Still leaning against Nancy, Jenny asked her, "What happened to all the other kids at the hospital? I used to play with some of them. I remember I had a friend called Three. He was little, but he was nice."

"I'm not sure, exactly," Nancy said. "Dr. Owens was supposed to find the parents of all the other kids. Or put them into good homes with good parents."

"Oh, right," she said. "I remember Hoppy– _Dad_ told me that a long time ago."

Petting Jenny's hair some more, Nancy asked her, "What's got you thinking about the hospital?"

"I can't find Mom today," Jenny admitted, wiping her nose on her sleeve and then picking the screwdriver back up. "I can find Jonathan and El and Will, but not Mom."

"Yeah," Nancy said, thinking about the phone number written on the pad of paper next to the phone. "They drove to Texas today. It's a lot further away than Springfield."

Jenny nodded her head, finishing with one screw, and then starting in on another. 

"Tell you what," Nancy said, holding the device steady for her. "When Jonathan gets back from work this evening, I'll ask him to help you find your mom. That way you'll be able to see that everything is okay."

"If this works," Jenny said, patting the case of the device. "Maybe I won't need Jonathan's help."

Carefully, Nancy said, "Maybe. But I don't want you to hurt yourself. Maybe we should wait for Jonathan."

Jenny pouted and started on the last screw. "Finding people isn't even that hard. El does it all the time."

"El is older and stronger than you," Nancy told her. "I'm sure when you're as old as El, you'll be the strongest one in the whole family."

"Yeah?" Jenny asked with a wide smile. "You think so?"

Using an exaggeratedly serious voice, Nancy told her, "Yes. I very much think so."

Jenny laughed.

A minute later, she had the last screw in place and it was time to test out the device. 

"Okay," Nancy told her. "Now, I'm fairly certain we did this right, but just in case, why don't you stand over in the kitchen?"

Her eyes wide with excitement, Jenny nodded. She ran over into the kitchen, peering at Nancy over the counter. "Okay! I'm back here!"

"Okay!" Nancy said, trying not to laugh. She plugged the device in and flipped the switch on. "How's that?"

"It sounds wrong!" Jenny called back.

Putting her hand on the frequency dial, Nancy asked, "Too high, or too low?" 

"Too low. It sounds like a sea lion! Like at the aquarium!"

Laughing, Nancy turned the frequency up a little bit at a time, "Tell me when it's right."

"Ooh, there!" Jenny said, jumping up and down a little bit.

Nancy stopped turning the dial. When touching the outside of the case didn't have any disastrous effects, Nancy said, "Okay. I think it's safe."

She lifted the device onto the side table next to the couch as Jenny came from the kitchen back into the living room. She sat down on the couch and closed her eyes, only taking a second before grinning, "Oh, there she is!"

"You found your mom?" Nancy asked her, sitting down next to Jenny on the couch, shaking her head. “I thought we were going to wait for Jonathan.”

"It was so easy, though," she said with a grin. "Also, El says hi. And Jonathan. And Charlie's almost here."

Smiling, Nancy patted Jenny's knee, saying, "Okay, okay. Don't overdo it."

“Can we watch TV?”

“Sure,” Nancy said, handing Jenny the remote control. 

A minute later, Steve and Charlie came into the apartment, their arms loaded down with shopping bags. “Hey! Who ordered tacos for lunch?”

“Ooh, me!” Jenny cried, jumping up off the couch and following Steve to the dining table. 

Nancy turned off the TV and joined them, greeting Steve with a kiss and asking Steve, “How did it go at the bank?”

“Good,” Steve told her. “Got my name changed on my accounts. Mom’s lawyer is helping with the trust fund stuff, so I should be all set.”

“That’s great,” Nancy told him, giving him another quick kiss. 

From her place at the table, Charlie said, “You got the power thing up and running, huh?”

“Yes,” Nancy said, taking the paper-wrapped package Charlie handed her and sitting down at the table. “Jenny helped me finish it up.”

“Sounds nice,” Charlie said with a nod before digging into her food.

“If you say so,” Nancy told her, unable to hear whatever it was that Jenny and Charlie were hearing.

A few minutes into the meal, Steve said, “Oh, hey,” and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his shorts pocket. “They were handing these out down by the taco place.” He handed it to Nancy. 

She put down her taco, wiped her hands with a napkin, and unfolded it, reading it out loud, “Chicago Gay Pride parade?”

“Yeah. I guess it’s a really big thing,” Steve told her. “The parade route goes right out in front of our building. It’s a week from tomorrow.”

“And you…” Nancy said, looking over the flyer again. “You want to go?”

His face fell a little bit. “You don’t?”

Shit. She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings. And the look Charlie gave her wasn’t very impressed either. “No, we can go,” she told him. “We should _all_ go. I just thought, with the kind of job you want to get…”

“Yeah, I know,” Steve said with a sigh. “But look, the guy handing out the flyer said there were like 40 thousand people at this thing last year. No one’s going to notice us in a crowd like that. And it should be fun.”

“I want to go to a parade,” Jenny said, looking over Nancy’s arm at the flyer. "Can I come, too?"

Sharing a look with Steve, Nancy told Jenny, "We're going to have to ask your parents if you can stay another night or two."

"And if they're okay with you going," Steve added. “I’m not sure how kid friendly it’s gonna be.”

Nancy shrugged, looking at the flyer again. “Think we can get Jonathan to come with us?”

“He hates people,” Steve said. “But maybe.”

“I bet we could convince him. Given the right motivation.”

“Gross,” Charlie said, a smirk on her face. Nancy lightly kicked her under the table in revenge. Charlie laughed and kicked back. 

~*~

Just like she had every night that week, Jenny took some extra meat from the refrigerator and brought it to her room. After Jonathan tucked her in and said goodnight, she got out of bed and put the meat in the center of her room, waiting for Splash to come eat it. She also turned on the air conditioner, and then burrowed down in her blankets to keep warm.

Sometime in the middle of the night, she woke up not to Splash eating the food she left for it, but instead to it scratching on the window. Jenny hadn't ever seen Splash do that before. Normally, it just 'ported through. 

Jenny went over to the window and opened it. "What are you still doing out there?"

Splash jumped up onto the windowsill, making a distressed noise. It showed Jenny itself, cringing away from a bad noise. A terribly painful noise. 

Jenny knew the noise it was showing her. Except that noise didn’t hurt Jenny. In fact, she found it calming. It reminded her of home. 

“You want me to turn it off for a minute?” Jenny asked Splash, showing him what she meant. 

It gave a happy noise of agreement. 

Moving carefully and as quietly as she could, she left her room and went out to the hallway. She crept past her brothers’ room, to the living room. The power device sat next to the couch, humming away happily.

She turned it off and crept back to her room. When she opened her door, the room was a lot colder than the rest of the apartment, and Splash was sitting in the center of the floor. He was eating his snack, and he showed Jenny a wish to be pet. 

She happily sat down next to it, petting her finger gently down its back. She got a few strokes in before Jonathan’s voice in her mind startled her. 

_ Jenny _ !

Before she could respond, he burst into the room, startling Splash and making it ‘port out the window.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said, _pulling_ it and somehow 'porting it back. 

Jenny saw Jonathan's intention just before he acted, so she screamed, "Don't kill it!"

Looking at her with confusion, Jonathan stopped before he ripped poor Splash in two. 

It 'ported away again, but Jonathan pulled it back, holding it tight and draining some of its power. 

The generator in the living room hummed back to life and Splash squirmed in Jonathan's hold, making a distressed screeching noise. Panting, Jonathan asked, "What do you mean, 'don't kill it'?"

"Splash is my friend!" Jenny cried. When Steve appeared in the doorway, Jenny ran to him and put her arms around his waist. "Don't let Jonathan kill my friend!"

Putting one hand on Jenny's back and the other in his hair, Steve asked, "What the f– What's going on?"

Still suspended mid-air, Splash showed Jenny a desperate wish – Jonathan letting it go. It was scared, because it couldn't get away with that horrible noise in its ears.

"Splash wants you to let it go," Jenny said, watching as Nancy came into the doorway. "The noise is hurting it!"

"Have you been feeding this thing?" Jonathan asked, pointing at the pile of ham still on the floor. "Jenny!"

"Why aren't you letting it go?"

"It's dangerous!" Jonathan told her, blood dripping from his nose. "If I let it go, it'll get big enough to start eating people!"

"No!" Jenny cried, leaving Steve and going over to where Jonathan was levitating Splash. "You wouldn't eat anyone, would you?"

Splash showed Jenny its nest, and the tasty meat food it and its siblings had grown on. It was a person. A person its parent had captured and used as food.

Horrified and shaking her head, Jenny said, "No! No, that's not right. You're nice! You're my friend!"

Nancy came back into the room with a big pot from the kitchen and its lid. She closed the pot and the lid around Splash, trapping it inside. “Is this good?” she asked Jonathan.

He gave a heavy sigh and nodded as he let go of Splash. “I think the generator is blocking its ability to ‘port.” 

Nancy put the pot down on the floor, leaning on the lid to keep Splash inside. 

"Sweetie," Steve said, kneeling in front of Jenny and taking her hands. "Your friend is a monster from the Upside Down. Like the one those soldiers brought to your house back in February. It's what Charlie and Jonathan have been looking for these past few months."

Feeling ashamed, Jenny looked down at her feet and admitted, "I didn't know that."

"I know," he said, pulling her into a hug. "And I'm sorry. But we can't let it go. If we do, eventually it's going to hurt someone."

"You don't have to kill it, though," she insisted, giving Jonathan a hard look as he wiped his nose with a tissue from the box on the dresser. "You could keep it. Like in the zoo! Like the lions in the zoo! They would hurt people if they got out."

"Yeah," Steve said, but he sounded really sad. "Except we don't know how to keep it safely. There's no zoo for this sort of animal.”

“Jen, it can _teleport_ ,” Jonathan said. “What if it teleports right out of its cage? A grown-up one of these took Will, kiddo. It almost killed him.”

“It did kill my best friend,” Nancy said, keeping the lid tightly on the pot with both hands. “My very best friend in the world was killed by one of these things.”

Tears rolled down Jenny’s cheeks, a sharp pain in her chest, making it hard to breathe. “But it _likes_ me. It let me pet it.”

Sighing, Steve looked at Jonathan. "Can you take it somewhere else? So she doesn't have to…"

Jenny understood that Steve wanted to protect her from being there when Jonathan killed it, but he still wouldn't stop Jonathan from killing it in the end. Throwing her arms around Steve and holding on tightly, she said, " _Please_! Please don't kill it!"

Steve held her tightly.

Softly, Nancy said, "Steve…"

"You can't do this to her," Steve replied. "Figure out how to give it to Owens' scientists or something." 

Jenny hid her face in Steve's shirt, but she could tell from the way the emotions in the room reacted to each other that there was some sort of conversation happening. 

Eventually, Steve said, "Sweetheart…"

For a second, Jenny thought he meant her, but it was Jonathan who complained, "That's not fair."

"Here, hold this," Nancy said, and Steve let go of Jenny to go over to her. "I'll call Charlie and Robin. We'll work something out."

"Fine," Jonathan said with a deep sigh. "Fine."

He gave Jenny a short, apologetic look, and then left the room after Nancy.

Still sniffling, Jenny sat down on the floor next to Steve. Splash was still sending her plaintive wishes, begging her to free it. At least Steve had helped her convince Jonathan not to kill it. Jenny leaned against him, and said, "I wish I could keep it."

"Yeah, I know, kiddo," Steve told her, leaning his head against hers. "I wish I could let you keep it. Sometimes…" He sighed, then tightened his hold on the pot when Splash jumped around inside. "Sometimes we love things or–or _people_ who aren't good for us. It's hard to give them up, but it's for the best in the long run."

"No it's not!"

Steve gave her an amused, but disagreeing sort of look. "You want to know what happened when Dustin befriended one of these things?"

Jenny knew Dustin. He was one of Will and El's friends. He was Steve's friend, too. It made sense to Jenny that he would make friends with a creature like Splash. "What happened?"

"It ate his cat," Steve told her. 

"Gross," Jenny said at the thought of anything eating a cat.

Nodding, Steve told her, "His mother was devastated. She really loved that cat."

Putting her hand on the pot, Jenny said, "If Splash ate you, I would be really sad."

He gave a little laugh. "Thanks." He sat there for a second, and Jenny saw him remembering monsters attacking him in a dark junkyard. He'd almost been eaten.

She wished Splash was different, but when she showed it Steve's memory, it felt disappointed when its fellow monsters didn't get to eat him. Jenny's eyes teared up again, and she pushed at them with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, rubbing the tears away. 

"Splash," Steve said, turning to look at Jenny. "You named it?"

"Kind of," she told him, drying her eyes again. "When I asked its name, it showed me a memory of splashing in a puddle."

After frowning at her for a moment, Steve asked, "It showed you a memory?"

"That's how it talks," she told him, as Nancy came back into the room with some rope. "It shares memories, like I do."

"No wonder you wanted to be its friend," Steve told her, helping keep the pot closed while Nancy wrapped it in rope and tied it tightly. 

"Thanks, baby," Nancy said, giving him a quick kiss, and then taking the pot with her out of Jenny's room.

Jenny saw that Steve's intention was to follow her, but Jenny didn't want to be out there while they talked about how to get rid of her friend. She threw her arms around Steve and sat in his lap before he could get up and leave. He gave a little laugh, but wrapped his arms around her again and sat with her on the floor.

Hugging Steve always reminded Jenny of getting to leave the hospital. After a quiet moment, Jenny asked him, "How do you tell the difference?"

"Between what?"

"Between loving something good for you, or something that's bad for you?"

He shrugged and pet Jenny's hair again. "I don't know, really. I guess…" He sighed. "I guess sometimes you don't _really_ know until after it's already hurt you." Hugging her again, Steve added, "Though, if you're keeping it a secret from the people you love and trust, like _your brothers_ , then maybe it's one of those things that's not good for you."

Ashamed again, Jenny nodded and let out a few more tears. "I'm sorry. I thought it was just so cool. I wanted it to be just mine."

"Yeah, I get that," he told her. After one last hug, Steve said, "Hey, why don't you get back in bed? We can work on reading some more of your book."

"Yeah, okay," she said, crawling back into bed. "Do you need your glasses?"

Steve tucked Jenny in and kissed her forehead. "You bet I need my glasses. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay."

Jenny settled down in bed and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly like her mom had shown her. It helped tame the scary, tight feeling in her chest. Mom said she'd taught Jonathan and Will both how to do it when they were little, because they'd both been prone to the same sort of attacks that Jenny got sometimes. It helped, even though Jenny thought it was pretty dumb. How could breathing different make you feel better? 

But it did make her feel better.

Like magic.

Like when Will thought good feelings in her direction and made the bad ones disappear. Like when El reminded her to say the calm words they practiced together in the bath. Like when Mom hugged her.

Jenny closed her eyes and pulled on that nice tone out in the living room, visiting home. El and Will were both sleeping in El's room, and Mike was there too, but Jenny was used to him being around a lot, especially during school vacations. Jenny nudged at El until she woke up, telling her, "I want to come home."

"You're supposed to be there for almost another week," El said, getting out of bed and taking Jenny's hand. They went across the hall to Jenny's room. "How 'bout we lay here together until you fall back asleep?"

Jenny nodded, getting into her own bed and curling up with El around her, holding on tightly until she did fall asleep, the rest of her book unread.


	5. Chapter 5

"Looks like she fell asleep without me," Steve said in a low voice as he came into the living room, wearing his reading glasses. Jonathan pulled Steve down onto the couch beside him and Nancy.

Sighing, Jonathan frowned at the tied-closed pot and told the others, "I don't like the idea of leaving it alive. _Especially_ if we're turning it over to Owens' scientists."

"You think they'll keep it alive?" Nancy asked him, shivering until Jonathan put his arm around her and pulled her close. 

"I mean, eventually, some government douchebag is going to get wind of what those marshals were trying to do and decide to copy them," Steve said, putting his arm around Jonathan's shoulders. 

Jonathan nodded and sighed again. "You're probably right." He leaned against Steve and realized that his frustration with Steve had dissolved. He'd been so close to killing something that Jenny loved _right in front of her_. Even if it was a dangerous baby demogorgon, Jonathan couldn't imagine the damage that would have done to his relationship with Jenny.

It reminded him of Lonnie, and that one Sunday morning when Jonathan was twelve. He'd been playing music in his room, with the door closed and everything, until Lonnie barged in, pissed off and hung over. He'd taken the record from the stereo Jonathan had salvaged from his mom's boss, and snapped it in half, throwing the pieces to the floor and saying, "This trash is murder on my headache."

Jonathan had never forgiven him for that. 

It had been the first album he'd ever bought. He'd kept his birthday money _and_ his christmas money, going hungry at school at least once a week before he'd saved up the eight dollars he needed. And in the course of two seconds, Lonnie had just _destroyed_ all that work. 

"Am I too quick to– I don't know," Jonathan said, sighing when his thoughts got mangled up on the way out of his mouth. "Too quick to kill these things?" He nodded at the tied-closed pot.

"What do you mean?" Nancy asked him.

"Like…" Jonathan rubbed at his dry, tired eyes. "They're _alive_. And yeah, they get bigger and eat people. But I was ready to kill this one like it was nothing. Like it was an ant or a spider or something. But, it _talks_. You told us it talks to Jenny, anyway."

"If there was some way we could _reason_ with it," Nancy said, "then maybe. But if they keep killing the only people who can talk to them, then I think we're at an impasse."

"They don't belong here," Steve said. "What are we gonna do? Negotiate a treaty? Give them Chicago, and we get the rest of the country? Yeah, that would end well."

Jonathan knew Steve was right, but he still didn't like the implications of what he'd almost done. His little sister had made a friend, and he almost killed it right in front of her.

The damage would have been irreparable, no matter how dangerous Jenny's friend was, or would become.

Jonathan felt it when Charlie got to the building. Sighing and exhausted, he nodded toward the door and said, "You wanna open the door, baby?"

"Sure," Steve said, getting up and letting Charlie in. Robin was with her, following Charlie through the door and giving Steve a pat on the arm as she passed him.

"This is it?" Charlie asked, pointing at the closed pot.

Jonathan nodded, and Nancy said, "We think it can't 'port out of there while the power generator is going."

"The sound is hurting it," Jonathan told them, wondering if subjecting it to the noise could be considered an act of torture. A war crime. "Maybe there's a better way to keep it from 'porting away."

"Yeah, kill it," Robin said, putting her ear to the pot and jumping a little when it rattled.

Jonathan told them, "Jenny _named_ it. We couldn't… Not in front of her, anyway."

"Ah," Robin said, turning to Charlie. "You got the…"

Charlie pulled the portable power device from around her waist. "Right here.” When she turned it on, it harmonized with the one sitting next to the table, and Jonathan felt a little like he might burst open at the power suddenly available to him. Charlie said, "Wow, okay," and gave Jonathan a look.  _Can you feel that?_

"Yeah," he told her, flinching a little when the pot on the coffee table jerked suddenly, the creature inside throwing itself around with greater vigor. "I think the demo-thing can feel it too."

"How big is it?" Charlie asked him, and Steve was the one to put his hands a little less than a foot apart.

"'Bout like that," he told her. 

"Claws?"

"Yeah," Jonathan told her. "Have you seen many that size yet?"

"A few," she told him, wrapping the power generator around the pot and securing it. "I think that one we lost by the nest was in this … stage or whatever."

"How did the clean up of that nest go?" Nancy asked Charlie, putting her hand in Jonathan’s. “Were all the little ones still there?”

“I don’t actually know,” Charlie said, sharing a displeased look with Robin. 

“They wouldn’t let us be there while they were taking the nest apart,” Robin told them. “Even though Charlie is the one who found it.”

"That sounds shady as fuck," Steve said, standing up and giving Robin a hug. "Anyone else think that chances are high Owens' people are gonna try to raise all those slugs?"

Nancy sighed, leaning closer to Jonathan. "Maybe next time we'll bring the right equipment to take care of them ourselves."

"Yeah, maybe," Jonathan said, but he still couldn't get it out of his head that these creatures might be sentient, and the moral implications of killing dozens of their young. Would it be more humane to kill them quickly, as opposed to keeping them captive for their entire lives? Or was killing for any reason other than the defense of life equally as repugnant, no matter the suffering that might be saved?

Jonathan certainly didn’t know the answers to these questions, and he had no idea where to start finding them, either.

~*~

“And this is where I’m gonna be working after you go back home,” Steve said, holding Jenny’s hand and leading her into the youth shelter. She’d been quiet since the night Charlie and Robin had taken her pet demogorgon away, no matter what Steve and the others did to try to cheer her up. He wasn’t sure what she might get out of coming with him to go fill out some paperwork, but Nancy and Jonathan were both working, so needs must.

“What is it?” she asked, looking around at the welcoming lounge-like area just inside the door. There were a couple of kids and a woman who was probably their mom playing a card game in one corner, and a teenager reading a book in another. 

“Sometimes,” Steve said, thinking about how things might have been different if Joyce hadn’t been so willing to take him in, “kids end up without a house for a little while. This place helps give them a place to go, keeps them out of trouble, helps them with school. That sort of thing.”

“Cool,” Jenny said, her eyes wide as she looked around. 

Steve led the way to the office just past the lounge, stepping inside and closing the door behind Jenny. The receptionist was on the phone, so Steve pointed Jenny toward the chairs along the wall. There were a few kids’ magazines in the rack between seats, so Steve picked them up and offered them to Jenny. She picked two, and said, “Thanks,” and then opened the first one, looking at one of the illustrated stories. 

For all the mistreatment she’d had growing up in that Execugen hospital, Steve figured the one thing they’d done right with Jenny was teaching her how to read. A little voice in the back of his head suggested that they’d likely only done it so she could read words she found in other people’s memories. 

When the receptionist hung up the phone, she smiled at Steve and said, “Hi. Are you two here for services?”

“No,” Steve told her, standing up and going to her desk. “I’m Steve, um, Byers,” he tripped over saying his new name out loud. “I’m volunteering starting next week, so I have to fill out some background check paperwork, or something?”

“Oh, okay. Great!” she said, opening a drawer and taking a piece of paper out of one of the folders. “Why don’t you fill this out,” she said, handing it to him with a clipboard and a pen, “and I’ll photocopy your ID?”

“Sure.” Steve managed to juggle the clipboard and his wallet at the same time, but it was a close call. 

When the receptionist was done with his ID, she asked, “So, who do you have along with you today?”

“My little sister,” Steve told her, smiling over at Jenny. “Our parents went on a trip for a few days, so I’m watching her until they get back.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you,” she said, smiling as Steve finished filling out the form and pushed his reading glasses up onto his head. 

“All set,” he said, handing her the forms. As he did that, Jenny got out of her seat and left the office, hurrying away. “Crap. I gotta go! See you soon!”

Steve ran after her, glad when she stopped at the base of a stairwell, right in front of a boy who looked like he was a year or two younger than her. “Jenny!”

“Steve!” she called back happily. “This is Three!”

Looking up at Steve shyly, he said, “Everyone calls me Theo now.”

“Okay.” Steve put his hand on Jenny’s shoulder. He was glad she had a friend who was human, but it being another kid from the Execugen hospital made things tricky. “Where are your parents, Theo?”

Pointing up the stairwell, he said, “My mom is upstairs. We’re living here for a little bit. She sent me to get more formula from the pantry.”

“Formula? Like for a baby?”

Theo nodded. “Out here, I have a baby brother.”

Steve licked his lips and nodded. “Okay, okay.” Looking down at Jenny, and the way she was grinning happily and holding Theo’s hand, he said, “After you bring your mom the formula, do you want to ask if you can play down here in the lounge with Jenny?”

Theo nodded excitedly and ran off. 

“Come on, kid,” Steve said to Jenny, taking her hand and leading her back to the lounge at the front of the building. “How did you know he was here?”

Jenny shrugged. “I could hear him.”

“Does he sound…” Steve looked back at the stairwell as Theo ran up it, a can held tight in his arms. “Is he doing okay? Is his mom treating him right?”

“Yes. She’s nice,” Jenny told him, picking up a deck of cards from a nearby table. “Wanna play crazy eights?”

“Sure.”

It was half an hour before Theo came back, his mom and baby brother in tow. The mom looked a little ragged, like she wasn’t sleeping much. Steve figured with two little kids and no home, she probably wasn’t. God, Steve wanted to help her so much, but he didn’t exactly know _how_.

“Hey,” he said, standing up and offering her his hand. “I’m Steve. Jenny’s older– well, my parents adopted her. I guess she knows Theo from before.”

"I'm Amelia." Nodding toward Jenny, the woman asked, “Is she...like him?”

Steve smiled and admitted, “Yeah.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. Clearing her throat, she looked away before she asked, "How do your parents deal with her? I mean, Theo is just about driving me out of my mind."

"Oh, well, they've got…" Steve wasn't quite sure how to describe the situation. Eventually, he decided to go with, "Other people in the family are able to help her." He tilted his head at Amelia. "Do you want me to introduce you to my husb– My _brother_? He's got… Well, he could help get things under control. And we live here in town, unlike the rest of the family."

She shifted the baby on her hip and gestured around. "You guys aren't staying here?"

"No, fortunately," Steve told her. "I'm going to start volunteering here next week, working with the kids." He scratched his head and had to catch his glasses when he knocked them loose, forgetting they were there. "I'm, uh, in school for education." He hung his glasses on the neck of his shirt, trying to remind himself not to forget again. This was his third pair since the beginning of the school year, and trust fund or no, he didn't need the trouble of replacing them again.

"That's nice," she said, watching as Theo and Jenny ran around the outside of the room. The baby in her arms fussed, burying his head against her shoulder.

As Amelia shushed the baby, Jenny ran by, saying, "He wants a new diaper!"

One eyebrow raised as she watched Jenny let Theo chase her, Amelia asked, "She do stuff like that often?"

"All the time," Steve assured her. Taking one of the flyers and a pen from the information table near the lounge entrance, he wrote his name and phone number on it, then gave it to Amelia. "Here. Let me know if we can help." He gave her an encouraging smile, wondering if there was something he could do, some way he could get Owens to help her with housing or a job or something. After all, if he'd just dumped Theo on her and left her to deal with him on her own, that was pretty shitty.

"Thanks," she said, holding up the paper before slipping it into her pocket. "Come on, Theo. We have to go change the baby's diaper. Say goodbye to your friend."

"No!" he cried, but Jenny hugged him and whispered something that had him nodding and grinning. "Bye, Jenny," he called, running after his mother. "Bye, Jenny's brother!"

With a laugh, Steve waved at the boy and said, "Goodbye."

He took Jenny's hand, saying, "C'mon. Let's go get some lunch."

"We should find the others, too," Jenny said, swinging Steve's hand with hers. "We should find all of them."

Steve didn't know if that was possible, so he said, "We'll see, kiddo. We'll see."

~*~

“Do you have any idea what to expect today?” Jonathan asked Nancy, sitting on the bed and watching as she finished getting dressed. She was wearing a pink tank top and white shorts, both very apropos of the weather.

“Not really, no,” she said, tucking her ring and its chain down the front of her top. “Honestly, if Steve and Robin weren’t so excited to go, I doubt I would be going.”

“Yeah, same here,” Jonathan said, resisting the urge to pull her back onto the bed and follow the line of that chain with his lips. “The only thing I’m looking forward to is being able to hold Steve’s hand out on the street.”

Nancy turned toward Jonathan, giving him a soft look. "I'm sorry you have to worry about that."

Jonathan shrugged. "Yeah. It sucks. But who knows? Maybe things like this pride parade will help people get over themselves and realize how much easier it is _not_ to stick their noses in other peoples' business."

With a laugh, Nancy said, "Yeah, maybe," and closed the distance between them. When she kissed him, her mouth smelled like the lipstick she'd just applied. As she pulled back, she said, "Oh!" and rubbed at Jonathan's lip with her thumb. "Sorry!"

"What? Not my color?" he asked her, only managing to hold a straight face for a second before breaking into a smile. 

Nancy laughed and rubbed at Jonathan's lip again. "Yeah, not really. I'm a spring, and you're more of an autumn."

"I don't know what that means," he told her, laughing when she left and came back with a tissue.

"Man, when they say long-lasting, they really mean it," Nancy said, wiping at Jonathan's mouth and face with the tissue. "We might have to get a washcloth involved, because now you just look kind of… debauched."

Noticing the frisson of want that passed through Nancy, Jonathan raised an eyebrow at her.

"Shut up," she replied.

"I didn't _say_ anything."

Nancy rolled her eyes at him, snorted, and left the room.

After stopping in the bathroom to wash his face, Jonathan joined everyone else in the living room. Charlie was covering Robin in sunscreen while Nancy was pulling on her sneakers and tying them. He found Steve in the kitchen, drinking a soda and already wearing his sunglasses. 

"Hey," Steve said, setting down his soda and stepping close, pulling Jonathan into a hug. "You ready to be proud of our gayness?"

"Sure," Jonathan told him, watching as Steve took something out of his back pocket – a little rainbow flag – and put the stick over Jonathan's left ear. 

"There!" Steve said with a wide grin.

Jonathan knew he wouldn't be able to stand having something like that in his face all day, so he took it from behind his ear and put it in the front pocket of his shirt. "Better."

"Sure, babe," Steve said, kissing him. "Let's get out there before all the good spots are taken."

Jonathan put his shoes on, and stuffed a few extra rolls of film into his shorts pockets before putting his camera around his neck. It ran into the flag in his pocket a little bit, but Jonathan knew it was important to Steve, so he left the flag there, hoping he wouldn't accidentally lose it.

Standing with the light from the living room window at his back, Jonathan lifted his camera and took a couple shots of his family getting ready. He managed to catch both Nancy and Charlie in profile in the same shot, and he figured that was at least one picture he was looking forward to developing. 

"Hey, everyone say, 'Cheese'!" Steve cried, throwing his arms over Robin's and Nancy's shoulders. They both played along, smiling for Jonathan's camera, but Charlie flipped him off. 

Yeah, he was looking forward to developing that shot, too.

Down outside the building, the street was already busy with people starting to line the street. Jonathan caught a few shots before catching up to the others, putting his hand into Steve's just because he could. It wasn't long before Steve was calling out to someone, "Hey! Leo!"

A tall, blonde guy darted across the street, calling out, "Steve! There you are!" He greeted Steve with a handshake. "How are ya?"

"Great," Steve said with a grin. "Leo, this is my…" Steve looked over at Jonathan and gave a pleased little laugh. "My _husband_. Jonathan."

Yeah, that was going to take some getting used to. The last time he'd been introduced as someone's husband, it was Nancy introducing him, and it had been 1965.

"Hey," Jonathan said, shaking Leo's hand when he offered it.

Steve leaned close to Jonathan, saying, "Leo's one of the full-time employees at the kid's shelter, but Robin and I met him at the resource center a while back. He's the one who hooked me up with the volunteer gig this summer." Before Jonathan could think of some response to that, Steve said, "Oh! You've got to meet my fiancée, too! Where'd Nancy go?"

He started heading in the wrong direction, so Jonathan grabbed him by the arm and turned him the right way, pointing out Nancy before he hurried away through the crowd. 

“Congratulations,” Leo said with a grin.

Jonathan wasn’t sure what the congratulations were for, and it must have shown on his face, because Leo laughed. 

“Steve’s really cute. Must be difficult to have to share him. I don’t think I could ever handle an open relationship like that, but I know plenty of guys who do.”

“We’re not… _open_ ,” Jonathan said, watching where Steve had made it to Nancy and was clasping her hand. “Nancy’s my wife, too. We’re all…” Jeez, this was always so awkward to explain. “All together.”

“Ah,” Leo said, but Jonathan could tell he didn’t get it. 

Luckily, that’s when Steve got back with Nancy and Robin. Jonathan stuck around for a minute while they chatted about the community group Steve and Robin were in. It didn’t really seem like his thing, so Jonathan made his escape. 

He took a few pictures of some interesting looking people before he made it over to Charlie. She nodded at him and asked, “When is this thing supposed to start?”

Jonathan looked at his watch. “Pretty soon, I think.” Looking back at the others talking to Leo, Jonathan said, “Robin’s having fun.”

Charlie hummed in agreement, fiddling with one of the little rainbow flags Steve had gotten. “At least that’s one of us.”

“Not feeling the party vibe?” Jonathan raised his camera and got a shot of a woman across the street.

“There’s definitely _a_ vibe,” she said, frowning at the two lesbians next to her. Leaning toward Jonathan, she asked, “Is it just me, or are they…?”

“High as kites,” Jonathan agreed, sharing a little laugh with Charlie. “Having fun, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said with a laugh.

There was some noise coming from down the street, and Jonathan realized it was the parade starting. The others joined Jonathan and Charlie on the edge of the sidewalk, squeezing together in the crowd, despite the hot weather. 

As the parade went by, Jonathan realized that most of the groups marching were people organized around the idea that being queer was great. He supposed that’s where the “pride” part of the celebration came in. Even living in this neighborhood for almost a year, Jonathan had never experienced this degree of _openness_ before. It made him uncomfortable, but the joy in everyone else around him made it less difficult to bear.

At one point, Steve’s hand made it from Jonathan’s shoulder down into the back pocket of his shorts. It was the sort of thing he'd do with Nancy in public, but hadn't ever done with Jonathan before. If it wasn’t for the thrill of not having to push Steve away, Jonathan thought he probably would have felt like he wasn’t queer _enough_ to be here, enjoying the parade. 

Like, yeah, he loved Steve. He was insanely attracted to Steve. But other guys? He wasn't so sure. Mostly Jonathan ignored people he didn't have to directly interact with. Why would he bother looking around, when he already had Nancy and Steve? And he wasn't loud like the guys up on those floats, calling out and flirting with the crowd. 

Jonathan wasn't _like them_.

But when he caught sight of Steve grinning at him and let Steve give him a short, sweet kiss, Jonathan figured it out. He _was_ like them, and he'd known it for longer than he cared to admit. It was just Lonnie's stupid voice in his head making him afraid of acknowledging it, making him afraid that if he thought about it, Lonnie would find out. That Lonnie would hurt him for it.

Well, fuck all of that.

Jonathan was an adult now. He was stronger than Lonnie could ever dream of being.

He looked over at Steve, and as soon as the idea hit him, he couldn't let it go. When Charlie turned to him with a questioning look, Jonathan gave her his camera. He waited until she brought it up to her face, aiming at him, before turning Steve better toward the camera and pulling him into a soft kiss. It was hard to hear the shutter snap over the sound of the parade, but Jonathan could tell when Charlie took it. 

_ Thanks _ , he said, taking the camera back from her.

_ No problem _ .

Grinning, Steve asked Jonathan, "What was that about?"

"I just…" Jonathan said, thinking of one particular film negative he'd been holding onto for the past four years. Maybe he was ready to finally print it and hang it in the apartment. Yeah, he was ready. With a smile, he told Steve, "I needed a picture of you and me."

Steve chuckled and shook his head, putting his arm around Jonathan's shoulders. "So not a problem, sweetheart."

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it for this installment! Don't forget to let me know what you think in the comments!
> 
> The next part (currently untitled and 2 chapters long) will go up next week, 3/19 and 3/20. See you back here then!
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) and on [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters). Feel free to message me over there if you want to chat! If you'd like to recommend this work, please consider reblogging this [tumblr post](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/post/612492282225115136/kindred-on-ao3-steve-takes-a-big-step-forward-in). Thanks!


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